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RECREATIONS 



IN 



^M W 









REV. EGBERT CrLAWRENCE, A.M., 

Formerly Adjunct Professor of History in Union 

College. 






^ 




.21^1 f 



SYRACUSE, N. Y. : 

C. W. BAEDEEN, PUBLISHER. 

1884. 



J)(o^ 



THE LIBRARY. 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Copyright, 1884, by C. W. BARDEE 



N. 



M0 Ph mitt, 



BY WHOSE COiS^STANT E:N^COURAGEMEIs^T 

AKY LITERARY LABOR 

BECOIVIES A. I>LE^S^lSrT RECRKA-TIO^ST, 

- THIS VOLUME 

IS MOST LOVING^LY 
DEDICATED. 



PREFACE. 

In preparing these recreations no effort has been made 
to exhaust any subject by entering into minute details ; 
nor for the sake of completeness to furnish a bare cata- 
logue of names, dates, and bald statistics. 

An exhaustive treatise upon any topic usually exhausts 
the reader's patience, while a long list of names and 
numbers is likely to be no more fascinating and profita- 
ble for general reading than would be a common city 
directory. 

" That which interests is remembered," was a 
favorite saying of the great teacher, Horace Mann. 
Bearing this truth in mind, the author of the following 
chapters has endeavored to seize and dwell upon a few 
salient facts and features in different countries, and to 
talk about some of the celebrated characters of antiquity 
long enough to produce an impression upon the memory 
and to kindle a desire for farther investigation. The 
work is now submitted to the public with the hope that 
it ma3'^ find a welcome among intelligent readers. 

E. C. L. 

Alexandria Bay, N. Y., Jan. 1, 1884. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Creation, Fall, Deluge, Babel 9 

II. China, Confucius, Language, Morrison, Population 

Architecture, Character, Marriage .-- 13 

III. Japan, Climate, Tokio, Gymnasts, Religion, Govern- 

ment, Recent changes 2^ 

IV. The Dispersion, Hebrews, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Jo- 

seph, Moses, Joshua, Judges, David, Jerusalem 

destroyed 29 

V. Arabia, Mohammed, Hegira, Koran, Mecca, Mosque 

of Omar _ 37 

VI. Assyria, Nineveh, Semiramis __ 46 

VII. Babylonia Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon, Hanging garden. 

Tower of Belus .__ _ 50 

VIII. Persia, Government, Religion, Zoroaster, Belshazzar's 
Banquet, Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes, Cuneiform 
inscriptions _ 55 



Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

IX. Egypt, Productions, Historic periods, Great pyramid, 
Sphinx, Obelisk, Thebes, Pharos, Library, Sep- 

tuagint, Rosetta Stone, Phoenix, Cleopatra 64 

X. Greece, Origin of its people, Hellen, Egyptian colony, 

Europa, Cadmus, Hercules, Perseus, Theseus 83 

XI. Voyage of the Argonauts, Seven against Thebes, Siege 

of Troy _ 98 

XII. Brief sketches of Greeks, Bias, Chilo, Cleobulus, Per- 
iander, Pittacus, Solon, Thales, Xenophanes, Py- 
thagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, 
Alexander the Great. 116 

XIII. A glance at Greek art and artists, Parthenon, Tem- 

ple of Diana, Choragic monument of Lysicrates, 
Madeleine, Girard College, Socrates, Praxiteles, 
Polygnotus, Parrhasius, Zeuxis, Apelles 135 

XIV. Rome and some of her great men, Julius Caesar, Cic- 

ero, Augustus Caesar, Virgil 150 

XV. Other distinguished Romans, Tiberius, Caligula, Ves- 
pasian and the Colosseum, Titus, Domitian, Tra- 
jan and his Column, Constantine 167 



CHAPTER I. 

These our actors, 
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 
Are melted into air, into thin air; 
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,. 
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve.— Shakespeare. 

;HE creation.— Many different theories have 
been held concerning the origin of the earth and 
the universe, but the Bible furnishes the anlj true ac- 
count. Therein we learn that God by the word of his 
power created all things and from the chaotic state of the 
elements he caused the waters to be gathered together and 
made the dry land appear. Then he clothed the earth 
with vegetation and adt)rned the heavens with the sun, 
the mooUj and the glittering stars. And God gave life 
to every fish and beast and bird. And as a crowning 
act to this great work God created man, forming his 
body from the dust of the ground, and breathing into 
his nostrils the breath of life. Then knowing that it 
was not good for man to be alone, the same Almighty- 
Being created woman to be his companion. Thus the 
first parents of the human family were created in the 
image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holi^ 
ness, having his law written in their hearts with power 
to fulfill it with dominion over the creatures and en- 
dowed with immortal souls. Such is the high origin of 
the first man and woman, who were named Adam and 
Eve. 



10 



ADAM S FALL. 



The Fall. — God planted a garden in the land of 
Eden and assigned it to man as his dwelling-place. 
Four streams issued from it. The Euphrates is one and 
the Tigris is thought to be another ; while the other two 
are unknown or at least not identified. The garden 
seems to have been located somewhere on the elevated 
table-land of Armenia. Adam is charged to till and 
keep it, and leave is granted to eat the fruit of every 
tree except one. But Satan, the tempter, a fallen spirit, 
appeared upon the scene in the form of a serpent and 
persuaded the woman to pluck and eat the forbidden 
fruit. The woman saw tliat the tree was good for food, 
and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be de- 
sired to make one wise; she took of the fruit thereof 
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband witli her 
and he did eat. Thereupon they immediately begin to 
suffer the penalty of their sin. The serpent is deserv- 
edly cursed. Sorrows are multiplied to Ev^e and all her 
daughters ; and Adam and all his sons are doomed to eat 
bread in the sweat of their faces all the days of their 
lives, and to bear trouble till their bodies moulder 
back to tlie dust w^hence they were formed. And the 
ground itself is cursed to bring fortli thorns and thistles 
to plague man in liis toil and render his labor more diffi- 
cult and disagreeable. Moreover, Adam and Eve are 
forthwith expelled from the garden of Eden, and Cheru- 
bim and a flaming sword are set at the entrance to guard 
it, and prevent the return of the guilty pair. 



THE DELTJGE. 11 

The Deluge. — Tlie next great event recorded in the 
history of the world is the dehige. God causes an awful 
flood to overwhelm the ancient inhabitants and destroy 
them from off the face of the earth. After the fall and 
expulsion from Eden, sin speedily corrupts the hearts of 
Adam and his posterity. Evil passions and desires awake 
and disturb the peace of society. Man's hand soon 
becomes stained with his brother's blood, and the violent 
impulses of a rude and unrestrained nature plunge the 
later generations deeper and deeper into the disorders of 
vice and crime. Ungodliness spreads infection on every 
side till wickedness and violence at length so generally 
prevail that Noah is the only man to be found who has 
kept the faith. For more than a hundred years Noah 
preaches righteousness, and the long suffering of a patient 
God waits in vain for the repentance of wicked men. 
" They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving 
in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark 
and knew not until the flood came and took them all 
away." Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and 
Japheth, with their wives, alone are rescued in the ark 
and saved from the general destruction of the human 
family. 

The Tower of Babel. — After this just and fearful 
judgment of the flood, Noah's posterity increases so rap- 
idly that the later generations descended from his sons, 
Shem, Ham, and Japheth, are forced to scatter abroad 
over the neighboring countries, and there establish new 



12 THE TOWER OF BABP:L. 

homes for themselves. They then conceive the idea of 
erecting the Tower of Babel, " whose top was to reach 
unto heaven," and to be a perpetual memorial unto them. 
They are not allowed, however, to proceed very far with 
the work before God frustrates their design by confound- 
ing their language. On this account the Tower is named 
Babel, or Confusion. Thence the people separate and 
disperse to all the four quarters of the earth, and plant 
their colonies in Asia, Africa, and Europe, each accord- 
ing to their new language. 



CHAPTER II. 



' Confucius flees with Buddha 
Before the rising day. 
And every dark pagoda 
Is crumbling to decay." 



aHINA. — The land of Sinim is the name applied to 
China in the Bible. But Heavenly Kingdom and 
Middle Kingdom are the names hj which the Chinese 
love best to distinguish their country; the latter referring 
to the central place among the nations which they imagine 
themselves to o.ccupy; and the former denoting their 
supposed celestial origin. Cathaj^, or the Flowery Land, 
is still another title bestowed upon it by early travelers- 
The name China is derived from Ching Wong, an early 
king who reigned in the third century before Christ. 
He was noted for conquering the Tartars and building 
the great wall as a barrier to prevent their incursions. 
None but an absolute monarch could ever have con- 
structed such a stupendous monument of human power 
and industry. It is 1,500 miles long, thirty feet high, 
and fifteen feet wide on the top, strengthened and 
guarded by embattled towers rising at convenient dis- 
tances along the whole line. The same emperor who 
ordered the mighty wall to be built, incredible as it may 
well seem, is said to have cared so little for the moral 
and intellectual good of his people that he commanded 
his subjects to destroy the whole body of Chinese litera- 
ture, in the foolish and disgraceful hope of thus obliter- 



14 CHINA. 

ating every vestige of Chinese history previous to the 
beginning of liis own dynasty. More than five hundred 
learned men were barbarously buried alive for refusing 
to obey the edict. The works of Confucius were secreted 
and saved from the general destruction. 

Confucius, who was born in tlie sixth century before 
Christ, has enjoyed a fame more widely extended than 
that of any other moral philosopher. Through all the 
changing dynasties his descendants have received distin- 
guished honors. And during all the years that have 
elapsed from his time to the present, his writings have 
been the principal objects of study in the schools of that 
vast Chinese empire. As a public teacher he never 
refused to give his instructions to any who had the abil- 
ity and a true wish to learn. He was impatient w^ith 
stupidity. " When I have presented," said he, " one cor- 
ner of a subject to any one, and he can not from it learn* 
the other three, I do not repeat my lesson." The basis of 
the Chinese government is that the ruler or oflficer 
should be as a father and the people as children. Prob- 
ably Confucius did not originate this beautiful thought, 
but he certainly did everything in his power to give it 
practical efficiency. The following sayings of his serve 
to illustrate the genius and character of the Chinese sage: 

" Learning without thought is labor lost ; thought 
without learning is perilous." 

" When we see men of worth we should think of 
equalling them; when we see men of a contrary charac- 



CONFUCIUS. 



15 



ter we should turn inward and examine ourselves." 

"' Good government obtains when those who are near 
are made happy, and those who are far off are attracted." 

He declared the necessary conditions of a government 
to be '' Sufficiency of food, military equipment, and con- 
fidence of the people in their ruler." The last he con- 
sidered the most important. Dispense with the military 
equipment if necessary, and next " part with the food; 
from of old death has been the lot of all men, but if the 
people have no faith in their rulers, there is no standing 
for the State." 

'' What you do not like when done to yourself, do not 
do to others." 

" I am not concerned that I have no office; I am con- 
cerned how I may fit myself for one." 

" I am not concerned that I am not known; I seek to 
be worthy to be known." 

" The superior man is affable, but not adulatory. The 
mean man is adulatory, but not affable." 

One of the disciples of Confucius affirmed in praise of 
his master that ^'He had no foregone conclusions, no 
arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no ego- 
tism." 

The Chinese Language is very difficult for the for- 
eigner to learn, from the fact that it is composed of such 
a great number of monosyllables written with different 
characters. The number of really different characters 
having the sanction of good usage is not far from 25,000, 



16 THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 

many of which are of rare occurrence. A knowledge of 
from 5,000 to 10,000 is said to be sufficient for nearly all 
the practical needs of the scholar. The more complete 
dictionaries give from 40,000 to 60,000 words, of which 
obsolete and duplicate forms and proper names make up 
perhaps one -half. 

At the opening of tliis century, Robert Morrison, a 
young Englishman, consecrated himself to the great 
work of preaching the gospel to the Chinese, and, in 
preparation therefor, began the study of their language. 
The extreme difficulty of its acquirement may be illus- 
trated by a conversation whicli lie is reported to have had 
with a gentleman at that period. 

"In visiting the library of the British Museum," says 
the gentleman above referred to, ''I frequently saw a 
young man who appeared to be deeply occupied in his 
studies. The book he was reading appeared to be in a 
language and character totally unknown to me. My 
curiosity was awakened, and, apologizing to him for the 
liberty I was taking, I ventured to ask what was the 
language that engaged so much of his attention. 

^' ' The Chinese,' he modestl}^ replied. 

" ' And do 3^ou understand the language ? ' I said. 

" ' I am trying to understand it,' he added, ' but it is 
attended with singular difficulty.' 

" 'And what may be your object,' I asked, ' in studying 
a language so proverbially difficult of attainment, and 
considered to be even insuperable to European talent and 
industry ? ' 



ROBERT MORRISON. 17 

" ' I can scarcely define my niotiv^es,' he remarked. 
^All tliat I know is that my mind is powerfully wrought 
upon by some strong and indescribable impulse ; and if 
the lanfijuage be capable of being surmounted by human 
zeal and perseverance, I mean to make the experiment. 
What may be the final result, time only can develop.' " 

Now glance forward for more than a quarter of a 
century, which period he spent at his solitary post in 
Canton as the founder and pioneer of Protestant missions 
in China, and behold a part of the wonderful result of 
this young English student's investigations in the library 
of the British Museum. Besides publishing a Chinese 
grammar of 300 quarto pages, and translating the entire 
Bible into Chinese, he completed the most gigantic of 
his literary labors. This was a Chinese dictionary issued 
in three parts : the fi]'st containing two thousand seven 
hundred pages, and defining forty thousand characters ; 
the second containing twelve thousand symbols ; and 
the third containing five hundred pages. The East 
Iiidia Company published this great work at a cost of 
seventy -five thousand dollars. 

Thus Morrison had the honor of giving the world a 
Chinese dictionary, and of giving the Bible in their own 
language to the most populous nation on the face of the 
€arth. 

Indeed, the population of China is so dense that soli- 
tude is a rare luxury. The whole vast empire is covered 
with cities, towns, and villages swarming with four Imn- 



18 ARCHITECTURE. 

dred millions of inhabitants. Satiated with this ever 
seething mass of humanity, the missionary often longs 
for the wild solitudes of his native land. It would 
afford such inexpressible delight to be alone. The shops 
of a Chinese city are open in front, and usually display 
on a sign-board a picture of the special kind of goods for 
sale within. A stranger will be likely to notice the odd 
names which the streets bear. The following names are 
a few common examples : ''Street of Nine-fold Bright- 
ness, of Ten Thousand Happinesses, of the Sweeping 
Dragon, of Everlasting Love, of One Hundred Grand- 
sons, of One Thousand Beatitudes, of Golden ProHts." 

The Areliitecture of China is poor and mean com- 
pared with that of other countries. It may be pictur- 
esque, but it can hardly be termed grand or beautiful. 
In the towns, the private residences are conlined to sep- 
arate streets ; aiid being only one story high and built 
without exterior windows, they resemble military en- 
campments. Some of the public monuments are well 
worthy cf notice. Perhaps the most famous one was the 
Porcelain tower of Nanking. It was octagonal in form, 
nine stories or 240 feet high, and 40 feet in diameter at 
the base. The value of this structure was incredibly 
great, its walls being covered with porcelain and gold, 
and its niches filled with countless images of gold. It is 
now no longer standing, having been destroyed in a 
recent rebellion by men greedy to gain possession of the 
gold. 



CHARACTER. 1{> 

In tlie city of Peking tliere is a magnificent marble 
pagoda built by the emperor over the clothes of a Bud- 
dhist priest who died of small-pox. Pilgrims from a 
long distance may often be seen at this shrine worship- 
ping and measuring their length on the ground, in 
making a circuit around it. 

The Chinese possess rather a mixed ckaracter com- 
posed of both good and bad elements. They are known 
to be generally a peaceful, industrious, and thrifty 
people. And yet they are often said to be cruel, sen- 
sual, dishonest and deceitful, imitative, ''peculiar," and 
tricky. They have a high regard for learning. In fact 
their positions of honor and trust are awarded by com- 
petitive literary examinations to those w^ho prove them- 
selves best qualified to fill them. 

Tea and silk are the most important productions of 
China. 

Though the Chinese are intensely conservative, self- 
sufficient, and radically opposed to change, yet some 
modern inventions are being introduced.^ A few tele- 
graph lines have been established, and tramways are 
being laid. 

The Chinese are skilled workmen, though at present 
they exhibit little evidence of' being endowed with 
inventive genius. In this respect, the people of the 
present generation are far inferior to their ancestors ; for 
it is certain that printing, gunpowder, the mariner's 
compass, and the manufacture of paper, porcelain, silk,, 
and clocks were first invented in China. 



20 MARRIAGE. 

Marriage in China is a matter which is chiefly ar- 
ranged by parents for tlieir children. An agent called 
" a go between," comes to the aid of the parents in mak- 
ing the match. He keeps a list of all eligible young 
ladies and gentlemen, w^ith all necessary details and par- 
ticulars. When a satisfactory selection has been made 
by the parents, the contracting parties interchange 
presents through the agent, and perform various relig- 
ious rites. There is no courtship, and the bride and 
groom seldom see each other till after the principal 
wedding ceremonies are performed. At one stage of the 
proceedings, they present a wild goose and gander at the 
ancestral altar, as an emblem of conjugal fidelity and 
affection. The bride spends the last thirty daj^s before 
the wedding in mourning her removal from her paternal 
home. The last night is consumed in weeping. Finally, 
when the wedding day comes, the bridegroom sends the 
bridal chair after his betrothed. The procession returns 
with her. Closely vailed, she leaves the chair and enters 
her future liome, makes obeisance to her lord, pays 
respect to the guests and worship to the ancestral tablets, 
and then retires to an alcove in the bridal chamber. 
Here the bridegroom receives her alone, lifts her vail, 
and gazes, probably for the first time, upon the face of 
his bride. 

She then comes forth, and the ceremony proceeds. 
The bride and groom drink from two cups joined by a 
scarlet cord, while the attendants invoke upon them 
future peace and happiness. Before the service ends. 



I 



MAKRIAGE. 21 

the visitors are expected to examine and praise every 
part of the bride's attire and ornaments, the beauty of 
her person, and the smallness of her feet. 

But all this pomp and parade is only a hollow mock- 
ery. Many maidens every year commit suicide to escape 
the misery of a heartless marriage and the shame of a 
a polygamist's home. 

Infanticide is practiced to a frightful extent in China. 
Female infants are generally the victims of this horrid 
and shocking crime. May God hasten the day when the 
great Chinese nation shall cease to do evil and learn to- 
do w^ell. 



CHAPTER III. 

In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, 

Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber 

And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.— Fsalm XIX. . 

"^APAN. — The Empire of Japan comprises four large 
^ islands and a great number of small ones lying oflf 
the coast of Asia, in the northwestern part of the Pacific 
Ocean. Tne largest of the group is the island of 
Niphon, which name properly belongs to the whole 
country. The Empire is about IGOO miles long, and 200 
miles wide in the broadest part. The coasts are gener- 
ally bold and rocky and indented with numerous bays, 
forming spacious and secure harbors. Among tlie many 
beautiful names which the Japanese apply to their 
native country, is " The Land of the Rising Sun," a 
title well describing its location as the most eastern of all 
the Asiatic Empires. Their national emblem represents 
the sun rising out of the sea. 

The Climate is various. In the extreme north, the 
mercury often sinks far below zero in the coldest 
weather, and the snow falls to a great depth. In the 
south, the sun's heat is sometimes 0]3pressive, tliough it 
is far less debilitating tlian it is on the coasts of China 
and India. The temperature of the central districts, 
where the densest population is gathered, is generally 
mild and agreeable. 



TOKIO. 23 

The hii^^liest mountain is Fuji-Yama, its altitude being 
about 14,000 feet, and its summit is crowned with per- 
petual snow. It is distant about eighty miles from 
Tokio, the largest city of Japan. 

Tokio is the capital of the empire. It has a well- 
endowed college and an engineering school which, in the 
estimation of Gen. U. S. Grant, is second to no other in 
the world. The city is provided with hospitals and 
asylums for infants and paupers, and by means of rail- 
roads and telegraph lines, is daily increasing its facility 
for quick and easy communication with all parts of the 
empire. As in most countries which are subject to the 
visitation of earthquakes and furious storms, the build- 
ings are low, — one story, or at most two, in height. 
But the gardens and open spaces are numerous, and give 
an air of grateful comfort and freedom that sufficiently 
compensates for any lack of statelj- grandeur in archi- 
tecture. The lawns, and albthe grounds of the wealthy 
are kept with assiduous care and skill. 

^ "You wonder at the number of servants about you — 
servants for everything. There, for instance, is a gard- 
ener working over a tree. The tree is one of the dwarf 
species that you see in Japan, — one of the eccentricities 
of landscape gardening, — and this gardener files and 
clips and adorns his tree as carefully as a lapidary 
burnishing a gem. ' There has been work enough done 
on that tree,' said the General, ' since I have been here, 

* Travels of Gen. Grant. 



24 GYMNASTS. 

to raise all the food a small family would require during, 
the winter.' Labor is too good a thing to be misapplied, 
and when the result of the labor is a plum-tree that you. 
could put on your dinner-table, or a peach-tree in fruition 
that might go into a water-goblet, he is apt to regard it 
as misapplied. Here are a dozen men in blue cotton 
dress working at a lawn. I suppose in a week they 
would do as much as a handy Yankee boy could achieve 
in a morning with a lawn-mower." 

'' Your Japanese workman sits down over his meadow 
or his flower-bed or his bit of road as though it were a 
web of silk he was embroidering." 

The art of applying a peculiarly beautiful and durable 
varnish to various fancy articles, is practiced by this 
people with the greatest skill and perfection. The 
lacquer, when used upon papier-mache plates, cups, and 
boxes, becomes hard, like enamel, and adds much to the 
strength and durability of the object. 

The Japanese gymnasts are the most noted in the 
world. They are capable of performing any feats which 
our professional athletes can achieve, and many others 
which the latter never even dream of attempting. Rev. 
J. G. Wood gives some remarkable examples of their 
performances, in his ''Uncivilized Races." A man lies 
on his back, and balances on the soles of his feet a ladder 
thirty feet high, to the top of which a second ladder is 
attached at right angles, like the top of the letter F. 
Then a boy goes up and down the ladder, and even 



GYMNASTS. 25" 

crawls to the end of the cross-piece and there hangs hy 
his instep. This astonishing feat is repeated day after 
day. Tlie heavy ladder is placed on the upturned feet, 
and in a moment is as steady as if planted in the ground. 
And its steadiness is not impaired by the boy's passing 
over it, though the center of gravity is continually^ 
changed. During tlie performance, not the slightest 
wavering is perceptible. Mr. Wood, the writer above 
referred to, tells some almost incredible stories about the 
skill these Japanese performers have attained in spinning 
tops. ''A man," he says, " spun a top on the edge of a 
sword, making it pass from one end of the blade to tlie 
other. He flung the top in the air, and threw the string 
at it : the top caught the middle of the string by the 
peg, wound itself up, and was again flung into the air^ 
spinning faster than before. It was then caught on the 
slender stem of a pipe, along which it ran as if alive, wa& 
passed behind the back and caught again in front, and 
lastly was received upon the hem of the sleeve, made to 
spin up the garment, over the neck and shoulders and 
down the sleeve of the opposite side. It was also made 
to spin upon a slight string stretched from the wall, andl 
to pass backward and forward as long as the spinner 
chose." After relating a number of such tales about 
these wonderful tops, the writer ends the chapter by 
saying that " they could be built into a perfect edifice of 
tops, three or four spinning upon each other,, sometimes 
each leaning in a different direction, and then being 
brought upright by a touch of the ever-ready fan. The. 



^6 RELIGION. 

•concludiDfi: feat was a very curious one. Some thirty 
feet above the heads of the spectators was hung a model 
of a temple, from which depended a string. The chief 
top-spinner then took a small but very heavy top, wound 
up its string, and flung the top in the air, drawing back 
the arm so that the top came flying into his hand. He 
went under the temple, gave the pendent string a half 
turn around the peg, and away went the top into the 
temple, bursting open its doors and flinging out a quan- 
tity of rose leaves, which came fluttering down around 
top as it descended the string and fell into the hands of 
the performer." 

.Shintooism is the native religion of Japan. It is 
u system of mythology resembling the ancient religions 
of China, rising from a chaos of le^^ends and developing 
into a creed which embraces countless divinities called 
Xami, representing embodied principles of life and ac- 
tivity and deified heroes. 

Buddhism also widely prevails. The number of Bud- 
dhist priests, including monks, is three times as great as 
that of all the clergy of the United States. Dai Butz 
is the largest and most famous idol in Japan. It is a 
<3olossal hollow bronze statue, about fifty feet high, rep- 
resenting the god in a sitting posture, and wearing an 
expression of sublime repose. About the middle of the 
sixteenth century, the Jesuits, led by Francis Zavier, 
made their appearance in Japan, and for thirty-eight 
years labored to spread Christianity among the inhabi- 
tants. Their labors were rewarded with abundant sue- 



GOVERNMENT. 27 

cess, the converts numbering nearly two million souls. 
The heathen priesthood took the alarm, and the Emperor 
issued an edict prohibiting his subjects on pain of death 
from embracing the new religion. The missionaries and 
all foreigners were banished from the country. A 
frightful persecution followed, in which thousands of 
Christians perished. Afterwards all the seaports were 
closed, and all intercourse with other nations strictly 
forbidden. 

The government of Japan is graduating into a lim- 
ited monarchy, with a parliament founded on the model 
of the British Parliament. The Mikado or Emperor 
belongs to the oldest dynasty of rulers in the world, the 
first of the line having begun to reign 660 B. 0. 

The recent clianges in Japan are truly wonderful. 
Many seaports have been thrown open to foreign trade ; 
the Mikado has abandoned all the mystery and seclusion 
held sacred for so many centuries ; the most promising 
students among the young men have been sent abroad to 
be educated for the public service ; seminaries and 
schools, benevolent and scientific institutions have been 
established ; a free press is discussing the affairs of the 
nation, and publishing the news of the world ; a new 
postal system has been arranged ; the army and the navy 
have been reorganized ; all the modern helps to a safe 
navigation have been introduced ; the calendar of west- 
ern nations has been adopted ; a gold and silver coinage 



28 GOVERNMENT. 

on a decimal scale has been put in circulation ; and emi- 
nent scholars have been sought for in Europe and 
America, and invited to take office in the empire, in 
order that the country may share the benefit of their 
experience. Such are some of the modern wonders in 
Japan. And they certainly show that the people of that 
island-country are decidedly in earnest for improvements. 
They are an intellectual people, and they set a high 
value upon education. A talented person rapidly ad- 
vances to positions of honor and trust. In filling public 
offices, they always try to find the man best fitted for the 
place. The Japanese are also noted for their politeness, 
truthfulness, and amiable and agreeable manners. 



CHAPTER lY. 



This^above all— to thine own self be true; 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man.— Shakespeare. 



|HE DISPERSION.— After the Deluge, according 
to an Armenian tradition, Noah distributed the 
habitable earth, from north to south, between his sons, 
giving to Ham the region afterwards inhabited by the 
blacks ; to Shem, the region of the tawny ; and to 
Japheth, the region of the ruddy. By this distribution, 
the middle of the earth fell to the sons of Shem : Syria, 
Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, and Arabia. To the sons of 
Ham : Africa and a part of India. To the sons of 
Japheth : Europe and Asia Minor. 

According to a scheme agreed on by Jewish and 
Christian commentators, from Shem — the father of the 
tawny, olive, or Mongolian race — are descended the He- 
brews, Persians, Assyrians, Lydians, and Syrians. 

From Ham — the father of the black race — are de- 
scended the Babylonians, Egyptians, Lybians, and Phoe- 
nicians. 

From Japheth — the father of the white or Caucasian 
race — are descended the Germans, Turks, Huns, Fins, 
Medes, Greeks, Romans, Spaniards, Tartars, Muscovites, 
and Thracians. 



30 HEBREWS. 

Hebrews. — While the main part of the world was 
wholly given over to the practice of idolatry, a Semitic 
people dwelling in Mesopotamia preserved the original 
belief in a single God. They were a nomadic race 
whose property consisted mainly of flocks, herds, and 
tents. 

Abram, whose name was finally changed to Abraham, 
at the command of God left his home among this people 
and settled himself, with his family and servants and his 
nephew Lot,"^ in " the promised land '• of Canaan, or Pal- 
estine, where they received from the native inhabitants 
the name of ''Strangers from the other side," or Hebrews. 

The birth of Abraham occurred about 2,000 B. C, 
and he thus occupies a position midway between the cre- 
ation and the dawn of the Christian Era. The following 
dates given in round numbers may aid the student's 
memory in fixing the facts of Old Testament history : 
Adam, 4000 years B. C; Abraham, 2000 ; Moses, 1500 ; 
Solomon, 1000 ; Daniel, 600 ; and Malachi, 400 years 
B. C. All the authentic history of the first 2500 years of 
the world is contained in the brief book of Genesis. 
Therein may be found short sketches of the lives of 
the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

The chief event in the life of Abraham was the trial 
of his faith when commanded to sacrifice his son through 

♦ Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities of the plain now covered by tlie Dead 
Sea, were destroyed by Are from heaven. Lot and his two daughters escaped 
from the overthrow, while Lot's wife looked back and was changed to a pillar 
of salt. 



ISAAC-JACOB. 31 

whom he expected to be blessed with a countless poster- 
ity. At the last moment, a special providence interferefr 
and furnishes a ram as a substitute to be sacrificed 
instead of the son. 



Isaac 9 son of the preceding, who contracted a mar- 
riage with the lovely Eebekah, a relative from Mesopo- 
tamia, in a rather romantic way, was a man of humble, 
tranquil, meditative character, devout, full of faith, and 
submissive to the will of God. Isaac had two sons, Esau 
and Jacob. The latter, aided by the cunning stratagem 
of his mother, succeeded in obtaining his father's chief 
blessing; and, in consequence, he deemed it prudent ta 
flee from his home to avoid the wrath of his brother 
when he should discover the deceit that had been prac- 
tised upon him. Jacob directs his flight to the earlj 
home of his ancestors, where his uncle Laban dwells ;; 
and on his journey, where night overtakes him, he lies- 
down to sleep with a stone for his pillow. He dreams ;. 
and in his dream he beholds a ladder reaching from earth 
to heaven, over which the angels are passing back and 
forth. 

The familiar hymn, "Nearer my God to thee," is- 
chiefly founded upon this incident in the life of Jacob. 
In after years, an angel wrestled with the patriarch till 
day-break, and then changed his name from Jacob to 
Israel. And from that time forward, the Hebrews were 
<3alled Israelites, or children of Israel. 



32 JOSEPH-MOSES. 

Joseph was one of the twelve sons of Jacob, and was 
the special favorite of his father. On this account his 
brothers were jealous of him, and at the first favorable 
opportianity they sold him, to be carried down to Egypt 
as a slave, where, after various trials, he was raised to be 
chief in authority next to JPharaoh. By the prudent 
foresight of Joseph, Egypt lays in store an abundance of 
corn for a seven years' famine. And thither the Canaan- 
ites resort to buy food. 

Thus God's providence prepares the way for the re- 
moval of Jacob and his household to Goshen, a fertile 
district of Egypt, on the eastern shore of the Nile. Here 
the Israelites reside, till they become so numerous as to 
•excite the jealous apprehension of Pharaoh, who there- 
upon subjects them to bard bondage, and orders their 
male children to be put to death as soon as they are 
born. Then God raises up a leader to free his oppressed 
people. 

Moses is born; and after being hidden for three months 
by his parents, is exposed on the river, where he is found 
by the daughter of Pharaoh, by whom he is adopted 
and thoroughly educated in all the wisdom of the Egyp- 
tians. And he is further disciplined for the great work 
to which he is destined, by a forty years' life in the des- 
ert of Midian. At the end of this period, God ap- 
pears to him in the burning bush, and appoints him and 
Aaron, his brother, to deliver their people from bond- 
age in Egypt. At the refusal of Pharaoh to let the 



MOSES. 33 

Xord's people go, ten successive plagues arc sent — 
water changed to blood, frogs, lice, swarms of flies, 
murrain, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the slaying of 
the flrst-born. The passover is instituted, and Moses 
leads forth 600,000 men, besides children and a mixed 
-multitude, aggregating in all from 3,000,000 to 5,00(\0()0 
persons. Pharaoh pursues them with his army, but God 
opens a dry passage through the Red Sea for the 
Israelites, while he suffers their pui-suers to drown. 

At the base of Mount Sinai, the chosen people encamp, 
and receive the moral and ceremonial laws from God, 
their divine ruler. And the decalogue or ten command- 
ments here flrst proclaimed have furnished, and still 
continue to this day to furnish, the main groundwork for 
civil law throughout all Christendom. 

By divine direction, the people bring free-will offer- 
ings and build a beautiful tabernacle as a sanctuary for 
public worship. A vast amount of gold and silver and 
other valuable material was used upon this structure and 
its furniture. 

The following were the principal articles contained in 
it: The altar of burnt offerings and the brazen laver 
were in- the court ; the golden candlestick, the altar of 
incense, and the table of show-bread were in the Holy 
Place ; while in the " Holy of Holies " there was only 
the ark of the covenant, in which a copy of the law was 
deposited and preserved. 

For forty years the children of Israel wander in the 
-wilderness ; and during all that period, they are supplied 



34 JOSHUA. 

with manna and quail and water by a daily series of 
miracles. Their clothing waxes not old upon their backs 
nor their shoes upon their feet. They started from 
Egypt proud, unbelieving, and rebellious. In the course 
of the long journeying, time, disease and many a griev- 
ous plague have swept most of the haughty leaders into^ 
the grave. Their descendants have been trained by 
severe chastisements and by tlie sight of these stupendous 
and long-continued miracles, to be submissive ; they have 
been taught to love virtue and prize freedom ; they have 
been charged to be strong and of good courage that they 
may go in boldly and possess the promised land of 
Canaan. Moses, the great leader and law-giver, is not 
permitted to cross the Jordan. From the top of Mount 
Pisgah he views the beautiful fields of the Holy Land, 
and then his lofty spirit takes its flight to fairer fields 
on high. "And Moses was an hundred and twenty years 
old when he died: his eye was not dim nor his natural 
force abated." 

Joshua is then chosen to the leadership with the most 
encouraging assurances of divine help. The work of 
conquest, however, does not proceed very far under the 
command of the valiant Joshua before the Israelites 
hasten to abandon the war and demand the distribution 
of the conquered territory. The twelve tribes share the 
land by lot in such a way that Ephraim and Manasseh 
(Joseph's two sons) succeed to equal portions, while on 
the other hand the Levites receive no distinct inheritance 



DAVID. 35- 

only a few towns and the tenth part of the products of 
the earth being allotted to them. 

From this time the Hebrews were governed by Judges, 
the most renowned of whom were Gideon, Jephthah^ 
the giant Samson and the brave and poetic prophetess 
Deborah. The just and upright Samuel closes the line* 
of judges, changes the government to a monarchy and 
anoints Saul the first king. 

David, the sweet singer of Israel, a shepherd youth,, 
but a man after God's own heart, is next raised to the- 
throne and founds a family which continues to reign till 
the subjugation of the country by the Chaldeans. Under 
Solomon the beautiful temple is built at Jerusalem to- 
take the place of the tabernacle. Under Rehoboam, 
David's grandson, ten tribes revolt and form the separate 
kingdom of Israel, between which and the kingdom of 
Judah frequent and bloody wars are waged. Finally the 
greater part of both nations are carried away captive to- 
Babylon and the eastern countries. Thence a few small 
colonies of the Hebrews return after an exile of seventjr 
years and build another temple at Jerusalem, and attempt 
in vain to re-establish their nation. God has ceased t(y 
fight their battles. The Seleucian Kings and Roman 
Emperors are too strong for them when the divine aid is- 
withdrawn. 

In the year 70 A. D., Titus, the Roman General, takes 
and utterly destroys Jerusalem. 



36 DISPERSION OF THE JEWS. 

Since that time, though the sacred capital has been re- 
built, the Hebrews have ceased to exist as a separate 
nation, but are scattered among the people of every coun- 
try. Hated, hunted and persecuted they have fled from 
place to place, still retaining their characteristic traits. 
Wherever they are they cherisli an undying affection for 
the laud of Judea, the laud of their fathers, and hope yet 
i:o recover it from the grasp of their enemies. 



CHAPTER V. 

'•There is but one God aud Mohammed is his prophet." 

tA? RABIA, — This is a country of Western Asia, lying' 
"^ south and east of Palestine. Ptolemy was the 
first^ writer who divided it into three parts; namely,. 
Arabia Deserta, Arabia Petrsea, and Arabia Felix, which 
division is still recognized, as in general each name is 
descriptive of the natural features and character of the 
district to which it is applied. 

''The desert " and ''the rocky " are the parts on the 
east and south, immediately adjacent to the Holy Land,., 
and are inhabited by wild tribes of Bedaweens, who claim 
to be descended some from Joktan, the son of Eber, and 
others from Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar. 
They lead a wandering life, dwelling mostly in tents and 
feeding their flocks and herds wherever they can lind 
pasturage. Stony Arabia, though smaller than the other 
divisions, is rich in historical associations. It was famil- 
iar ground to the patriarch Job ; to Moses, who here fed 
his father-in-law's sheep, saw the burning bush, and led 
the children of Israel in their forty years' wanderings ;. 
and to the prophet Elijah, who here with fear and awe 
listened to the " still small voice." 

Arabia Felix, or '^the happy," lying at the southeastern^ 
extremity of the peninsula, was the chief seat of wealth 
and population. The Queen of Sheba, who visited Sol-^ 



58 MOHAMMED. 

omon, probably came from this region. Here are the 
famous cities of Mecca and Medina. And this is the 
place of the Mohammedan religion. 

Mohammed, the founder, was born at Mecca, 571 
A. D. The Koreish, the noble and distinguished tribe 
to which he belonged, kept the temple Kaaba in whose 
wall was fixed a small oval, black stone, said by tradition 
to have been given to Abraham as a petrified angel, once 
pure white, but soon blackened by the kisses of wor- 
shiping sinners. The atmosphere which Mohammed 
breathed in his youth was strongly charged with a 
spirit of wild poetry, fable, and superstition. Left an 
orphan at six, he passed into the hands of a merchant- 
uncle, and became, in time, camel-driver and salesman, 
often taking long journeys with the caravans and listen- 
ing with rapt attention and delight to the strange legends 
-and traditions of the desert. 

The lad gave early promise of future eminence, though 
he was shamefully deficient in the elements of education, 
it being doubtful whether he could read or write ; and 
seldom was he able to quote a verse of poetry correctly. 
Indeed, he styles himself '' the illiterate prophet." It is 
certain, however, that as he grew up he won the respect 
and confidence of his countrymen by his aversion to any 
thing dishonorable, and by his noble conduct according 
to the Arabian standard. 

At the age of twenty-five, he becomes the mercantile 
agent of a wealthy widow by the name of Kadijah, and 



MOHAMMED. 39 

in the management of her affairs, achieves such success 
as to win her heart and hand. Her forty years do not 
hinder her from looking with favor'upon the young and 
handsome steward. They marry, and live in peace and 
comfort, till in his fortieth year Mohammed proclaims 
himself a prophet. For some time previously, he has 
been in the habit of retiring to a cave for secret study 
and meditation. Possessed of ample means now for the 
support of himself and family, he can enjoy leisure when 
he pleases. He is fond of solitude, and loves to wander 
alone through the wild gorges around Mecca. And one 
day, after a solitary walk, he returns home with the 
strange story upon his lips that the angel Gabriel has 
appeared to him and revealed wonderful truths, and 
commissioned him to preach a new religion, declaring, 
" There is but one God and Mohammed is his prophet." 
His wife and nephew at once embrace the new faith, 
and shortly afterwards Abu-Bekr becomes a convert. 
But the progress is too slow to satisfy the enthusiastic 
apostle. Relatives and former friends hear his claims 
with coldness and incredulity ; and when he speaks of 
overthrowing idolatry and restoring the ancient religion 
of Abraham, they put him to silence with an angry out- 
burst of indignation. For years afterward, Mohammed 
is the object of bitter hatred and persecution. His ene- 
mies demand that he show proof of his divine mission 
by working miracles. And to satisfy this demand, he 
publishes his famous night journey to heaven, where the 
angel Gabriel introduces him to patriarchs, prophets, and 



40 MOHAMMED. 

to God himself, which announcement only results in^ 
more violence and ridicule on the part of his foes and 
the desertion of some of his disciples. 

At length, in the year 619, Kadijah dies, and he 
mourns her loss, though not so deeply as to prevent him 
from marrying several other wives ; for he found it con- 
venient to allow and practise polygam3^ When a later 
wife tried to convince him, on the score of youth, that 
she was better than Kadijah, his first love, Mohammed 
replied : 

" There never can be a better ! She believed in me 
when men despised me. She relieved my wants when I 
was poor and persecuted by the world." 

On the discovery of a plot laid to murder him, each 
conspirator having sworn to plunge a sword in his body, 
the prophet takes refuge in flight at midnight from 
Mecca to Medina. The date of this flight, or Hegira, 
as it is called, is 622 A. D., and is the beginning of the 
Mohammedan era. 

Not meeting with the desired success, Mohammed now 
determines to propagate the new faith by fighting, not 
by preaching. " The sword," he cries, " is the key of 
heaven and hell." Among the spoils of an early victory 
he finds a sword of the keenest edge and finest temper, 
which he carries in all his future battles. About this 
time he begins to seal his letters with a silver signet 
inscribed 

APOSTLE 

OF GOO. 



THE KORAN. 41 

In 629 he takes possession of Mecca witli his troops ; 
and mounted on his camel, he rides around the Kaaba 
seven times and orders the 360 idols on its roof to be 
destroyed, saying, "The truth is come; let falsehood 
disappear." He survives this, perhaps the grandest day 
of his life, three years, when with heart broken by the 
death of his only son and his frame racked with pain and. 
poison, he falls a victim to a violent fever. 

In person, Mohammed was of medium height, with a 
fair and ruddy complexion, full beard, dark eyes, grace- 
ful neck, and fascinating appearance. His diet was 
most simple, living mostly on dates and water, and 
caring little for cooked food. His manner was lively^ 
and his conversation often humorous. Though the apos- 
tie of error, he certainly possessed more than ordinary 
talent. 

The Koran, which contains the creed of Mohammed, 
consists of pretended revelations from the angel Gabriel,, 
uttered by the prophet, and first written down on palm 
leaves and mutton bones by his disciples. The following 
are some of the leading points of doctrine : 

1. Unity of God. 

2. Existence of angels varying in rank ; among them 
a fallen spirit banished from Paradise for refusing to 
worship Adam : also a lower order of spirits subject to 
death, called Genii and Peris. 

3. Six great prophets were recognized, — Adam, Noah, 
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed. 



42 THE KORAN. 

4. A beautiful Paradise filled with sensual delights for 
the good ; and a hell for the punishment of the wicked. 

5. Fatalism. Man has no free-will. His action and 
destiny .are fixed by an unalterable fate. 

And furthermore, four religious duties are enjoined 
upon all Moslems : 

1. Ablution, followed by prayer five times a day with 
the face turned towards Mecca. 

2. The giving of tithes in charity. 

3. Fasting from rise to set of sun every day during 
the month of Ehamadan. Pork and wine are strictly 
prohibited at all times. 

4. A pilgrimage to Mecca. 

There is no doubt that the Koran aided in producing 
a reformation, and in abolishing idolatry and the horrid 
practice of infanticide and demon-worship. But it au- 
thorizes and encourages polygamy, and that is the foulest 
blot on its system of morals. Tayler Lewis rightly re- 
gards this feature and ^ " the too sensual aspect it gives 
to the happiness of Paradise '^ as " positive deformities.'' 
Its code of laws also curiously forbids the Moslem to 
lend money on interest. 

After the death of its founder, Islamism increased 
greatly under his successors, the Caliphs. At the close 
of the first century after Mohammad professed to have 
received his divine commission as a prophet of God, the 
religion he started had spread over Arabia, Syria, Asia 
Minor, Persia, Northern India, Egypt, Northern Africa, 

* Article on the Koran in Johnson's Cyclopaedia. 



MECCA. 43 

Spain, and part of Gaul. At present the Moslems number 
about 180,000,000. The causes of such rapid extension 
among so many nations are not difficult to be discovered. 

In the first place, as soon as the Arabs, or Saracens as 
thej are also called, were converted, they held them- 
selves in duty bound to force their creed upon all the 
rest of the world. Accordingly they endeavored to 
make a universal conquest. They called upon men 
everywhere to choose between three things, Koran, tri- 
bute, or sword; that is, either to adopt the Koranic relig- 
ion, or to buy the right to continue Christians, or heathens 
by paying tribute, or else to take up arms and fight 
against them if they could. 

In the next place the laws and doctrines of the Koran 
were admirably adapted to the natural desires and dis- 
positions of men and especially to the manners and cus- 
toms of Oriental people. For the most part the Moslems 
are grossly ignorant, basely immoral, and foolishly super- 
stitious. Women are degraded. They seldom enter 
the mosques; and when they do, they sit apart from the 
men, and are regarded as mere soulless creatures, only fit 
to be man's tools and slaves here and hereafter. 

Mecca is the most noted city in the Mohammedan 
world, as being the birth-place of the prophet. It has 
neither manufactures nor trade. Its growth and pros- 
perity are due to the vast numbers of pilgrims who 
annually assemble here to pray in the mosque and kiss 
the black stone of the Kaaba. 



44 THE MOSQUE OF OMAR. 

The mosque at Medina containing the tomb and mau- 
soleum of Mohammed is an equally sacred goal to pil- 
grims. 

The Mosque of Omar, named after the second Caliph 
and built on the site of Solomon's temple at Jerusalem, 
is likewise held in the highest estimation by all devout 
Moslems. It is a magnificent building, covered with 
marbles of different hues, and with porcelain tiles of 
intricate designs, lighted by beautiful and brilliant, 
stained-glass windows, and capped with lofty dome, 
graceful spire, and gilded crescent. Within, the dome 
is supported on pillars of polished porphyry, and the 
walls and ceilings are gracefully inscribed with Arabic 
quotations from the Koran. But the greatest attraction 
is a great, gray rock of limestone directly beneath the 
dome. Legend has invested this rock with peculiar sanc- 
tity. The Moslem devotees are taught to believe the 
absurdity that "it descended from heaven when the spirit 
of prophecy was withdrawn from earth and attempted to 
return to its native quarry when the prophet ascended to 
glory, but was only restrained by the powerful arm of 
Gabriel. Refusing to touch the earth again, it remains 
suspended in the air seven feet above the top of Mount 
Moriah ! " 

Moreover they say there is a wondrous fountain beneath 
this rock, from which all the water on the earth flows; and 
that in one of the unexplored caverns are still treasured 
the armor of Mohammed, the saddle of his favorite steed, 



THE MOSQUE OF OMAR. 45 

tlie scales to be need on the awful judgment-day for 
weighing the souls of men, David's pomegranates, Solo- 
mon's birds, and a silver urn, dislodged from its pedestal 
by the angel's wing on that memorable night of the 
prophet's ascension to heaven. 

To convince the incredulous beyond the shadow of a 
doubt that these marvelous tales are true the sheik who 
now keeps the mosque is ready to show the indentation 
left in the rock by Mohammed's foot, when he sj^rang 
from this spot and ascended to heaven, and also the 
print of the angel's hand when he hurled the rock back 
to its resting place and kept it from rising with the foot 
of the ascending prophet ! Alas ! to the Christian how 
much of Mohammedanism is a pitiful delusion ? And 
in the critical judgment of modern science how much of 
it is only miserable stuff ! 

** What fools these mortals be !" 



CHAPTEE VI. 

•* Each minute of a man's safety he does walk 
A bridge, no thicker than his frozen breath, 
O'er a precipitous and craggy danger 
Yawning to death." 

tjJtfSSTRIA. The ancient and powerful kingdom of 
•^^ Assyria occupied the upper part of the Mesopo- 
tamian valley, with its successive capitals situated on the 
river Tigris. Its name is probably derived from Asshur, 
one of the sons of Shem. The surface of the country is 
mostly a plain, broken here and there by rivers and 
streams, and by ranges of limestone hills. The fertility 
of the valleys was probably increased by artificial irriga- 
tion from the rivers, as from all accounts the region was 
exceedingly productive, while Herodotus states that the 
rainfall was light. The early history of this country is 
lost in obscurity. 

From the record in the book of Genesis, Nineveh 
seems to have been built by Nimrod, the mighty hunter. 
This was the most famous of Assyrian cities, though, 
according to cuneiform inscriptions, the first capital was 
Asshur, on tlie Tigris, 60 miles south of Nineveh. The 
latter, however, was founded soon after the deluge and 
became, in process of time, the capital of the Kingdom, 
and flourished for many centuries as the mistress of the 
East. In Jonah's day its population probably numbered no 
less than 600,000 souls. It was situated on the river Tigris, 



ninp:veh. 47 

about 500 miles nortli-east of Palestine, surrounded by- 
walls 100 feet high and broad enough on top for three 
chariots to drive upon them abreast. There were 1500 
towers, each 200 feet high, and numerous strongholds 
with gates and bars. The circuit of the city was about 
60 miles, and within were splendid palaces adorned with 
sculptures most wonderful to see. There were parks and 
pastures alive with animals wild and domestic. There 
were gardens and groves and orchards filled with fruit 
and the choice and staple productions of nature. Her 
people were wealthy and warlike and idolatrous. The 
Hebrew prophets denounced their pride, treachery, and 
violence. In the figurative language of the Orient, 
her merchants are declared to be like the stars in 
number, her crowned'princes as locusts, and her captains 
as grasshoppers. 

To this great and wicked city the prophet Jonah 
is despatched by the Lord, burdened with a warning 
of speedy destruction. Timely repentance on the part 
of all the inhabitants stayed for a season the exe- 
cution of the sentence. But the city was doomed to 
fall ; and at length, about 750 B. C, it was taken by the 
Medes, and, later, by Cyaxares, after which it never 
recovered its former splendor. Its ruin was accomplished 
by the help of the river. After a siege of two years, a 
great inundation of the Tigris occurred, and washed 
away a part of the wall, and the enemy marched in 
through the breach. Sardanapalus II., who was at that 
time king of -NTineveh, made an effort to repel the invad- 



48 SEMIRAMIS. 

ers, but was defeated. He then retired to his palace, and, 
havin^^ erected a hirge funeral pyre and placed upon it 
liis richest treasures and his favorite wives, and at last 
taving mounted it himself, he set lire to it, and perished 
in the flames. This incident furnished the basis for 
Byron's drama, Sardanapalns, The whole story is 
doubted by modern historians. 

The Assyrian Empire was now destroyed, and Nine- 
veh became a cluster of unimportant villages which 
dwindled and finally sank into hopeless ruin. So com- 
plete was its destruction that its site for ages has been 
almost lost, and its very existence a matter of doubt 
among infidels. But for the last forty years Botta, Lay- 
ard, and other enthusiastic antiquarians, have been open- 
ing the grave of its ruins and resurrecting the imperisha- 
ble and indubitable proofs of its former grandeur and 
power. Their excavations have disclosed temples and 
palaces and the sculptured memorials of their wars and 
worship. Winged bulls and lions with human heads and 
idols in human form, but with the head and wings of an 
eagle, carved in stone, have been found and brought to 
light, together with a great man 3^ articles of wood, ivory, 
glass, and metals, all of which show that the Assj^^ans 
twenty-four centuries ago had attained a high degree of 
perfection in carving, modelling, metallurgy, and kin- 
dred arts. 

The following is the substance of a legend concerning 
Semiramis, the celebrated queen of Assyria. Having 
secured the cooperation of the chief officers of the state 



8EMIRAMIS. 49 

by fair promises and bribes, she solicited her husband. 
King Ninus, to put the sovereign power in her hands for 
iive days. He granted lier request, and commanded all 
the provinces of the empire to obey Semiramis. Alas for 
King Ninus ! On attaining the sovereignty, his faithless 
spouse ordered him to be put to death, and then, as if to 
atone for such a shocking deed, she at once engaged in 
various enterprises for the benefit of her dominion. She 
employed two millions of men to build the great city of 
Babylon, while she visited every part of her realm to see 
what improvements she could make for promoting the 
welfare and happiness of her people. In order to facili- 
tate travel, she levelled mountains and filled up valleys 
to construct easy and passable roads. And many a bar- 
ren desert she converted into a fruitful plain by furnish- 
ing water through canals and aqueducts completed at 
enormous expense. For bold engineering projects she 
displayed a decided genius, and in military matters she 
was no less distinguished. The neighboring nations felt 
the invincible power of her arms, and discreetly surren- 
dered to her rule. But there is an end to all earthly 
careers and greatness. At length discovering a plot to 
usurp the throne formed by her son, Ninyas, and remem- 
bering a response from the oracle of Ammon, she abdi- 
cated in favor of her unworthy son, and immediately 
vanished from the sight of men. The common opinion 
was that she was changed into a dove, and that several 
birds of this kind having alighted upon the palace, she 
joined them and flew away. Hence the dove was ever 
-afterwards held sacred by the Assyrians. 



CHAPTEK YII. 

•* Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness!"— Shakespeare. 

[MABYLONIA. — This was a part of that great Meso- 
Cr^ potamian plain which lay between the river Tigris^ 
and the Arabian desert, and south of Assj^ria, with the 
river Euphrates running through the midst of it. In 
ancient times this valley was noted for the fertility of its 
soil. " Of all countries that we know," says Herodotus, 
" there is none that is so fruitful in grain, of which it 
yields commonly two-hundred fold." The fertility was- 
increased by the annuaL inundations of the rivers, when 
the super-abundant water was drawn oflf and distributed 
by canals over the whole territory, in order that those 
tracts remote from the rivers might receive the requisite 
irrigation. 

The Babylonians were distinguished for their intellect- 
ual ability, commercial enterprise, martial spirit and high 
civilization. They excelled other ancient nations in 
astronomy, and were especially fond of astrology. The 
people were chiefly engaged in agriculture, commerce, 
and the manufacture of textile fabrics and carpets. They 
were justly noted also for their high attainments in 
architecture. They built grand temples and palaces with 
kiln-dried bricks, which were often covered with an in- 
scription in cuneiform letters. Herodotus gives the fol- 



NEBUCHADNEZZAR. 51 

lowing description of the clothing and appearance of the 
Babylonians of his day : " Their dress is a linen tunic, 
reaching to the feet and above it another tunic made of 
wool, besides which they have a short white cloak thrown 
around them, and shoes of a peculiar fashion, not unlike 
those w^orn by the Boeotians. They have long hair, 
wear turbans on their heads, and anoint their whole 
body with perfumes." The government was monarch- 
ical. The sovereign possessed the power of life and 
death over his subjects. 

Nebuchadnezzar (604 B. C.) was the most noted 
king of Babylon. According to G. Kawlinson : " It is 
scarcely necessary to say that but for Nebuchadnezzar 
the Babylonians would have had no place in history. 
At any rate their actual place is owing almost entirely to 
this prince, who to the military talents of an able gen- 
eral added a grandeur of artistic conception, and a skill 
in construction, which place him on a par with the great- 
est builders of antiquity." Besides making other con- 
quests, he took Jerusalem with his army, destroyed Solo- 
mon's temple and carried the Jews into captivity. One 
of the captives, the Hebrew prophet Daniel, is elevated 
by this ruler to the second place of honor in the kingdom, 
as a reward for recovering and interpreting a forgotten 
dream. In the interpretation the prophet attests the 
greatness of the king in the following language ; " Thou 
O king, art a king of kings ; for the God of heaven hath 
given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 



52 BABYLON. 

And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts 
of the field, and the fowls of the heaven hath he given 
into thy hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. 
Thou art this head of gold." Nebuchadnezzar was the 
first of the monarchs of the world to possess universal 
sovereignty. Enthroned on the very summit of power 
and glory, he boasted of the mighty city which he had 
built for the honor of his majesty, and scarcely had the 
proud words fallen from his lips when he was called 
upon to suffer the awful though temporary affliction of 
losing his reason. 

Babylon, his capital, was regarded as one of the 
ancient wonders of the world. It was surrounded by 
stupendous walls, built of large bricks cemented with 
bitumen. Ilie height of these walls according to Herodo- 
tus, was 350 feet ; and the thickness 87 feet. The form 
of the city was a square, each side of which was fifteen 
miles long. There were one-hundred gates of solid brass 
at the extremities of the broad and handsome streets. 
The houses were three and four stories high, beautifully 
adorned and possessing ample courts and gardenfe. The 
most remarkable buildings were the great temple of Belus, 
and the two royal palaces, one on either side of the 
Euphrates. On the grounds of one of these palaces 
was the famous hanging garden. This singular 
structure was four hundred feet square, and was 
composed of terraces, rising one above another to a 
Jieight equal to that of the city walls. It was supported 



THE TOWER OF BELUS. 53 

on tiers of open arches. The top was covered with a 
large mass of earth on which were beds of flowers, thrifty 
shrubs, and even trees of considerable size. There was 
also an aqueduct supplied by machinery with water from 
the river for the use of the garden. It is affirmed that 
Nebuchadnezzar constructed this wonderful garden to 
'please his wife who, being a native of Media, ever re- 
tained a strong attachment for mountains and forests, 
which abounded in the home of her childhood. 

The tower of Belus was a square pyramid measuring 
half a mile in perimeter at the base, and, according 
to Strabo, reaching the incredible hei2:ht of 600 feet. 
There were eight stories gradually decreasing to the sum- 
mit, which was approached by a broad road winding up 
around the outside. The tower was mainly devoted to 
the worship of Bel, though the upper story was doubtless 
an observatory for studying astronomy. Immense treas- 
ures were stored in this temple. There were several 
statues of massive gold, one of colossal size said to be 
forty feet high. Here were kept the sacred golden vessels 
stolen from Solomon's temple. 

^'When we turn," says G. Eawlinson, "from this picture 
of the past, to contemplate the present condition of the 
localities, we are at first struck with astonishment at the 
small traces which remain of so vast and wonderful a 
metropolis. The broad walls of Babylon are utterly 
broken drown." The prophecy of scripture is verified. 
" Babylon the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Ohal- 



54: THE TOWER OF BELUS. 

dees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom 
and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither 
shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation." 
" But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there ; and their 
houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall 
dwell there and satyrs shall dance there." 



CHAPTEK YIII. 

*• What is good and what is brilliant, 
That we reverence in thee— 
Thy good spirit, thy good kingdom, 
Wisdom, laiw. and equity."— Hymn to Ormuzd. 

PERSIA. This is an elevated table-land in the west- 
ern part of Asia lying, between the Caspian sea and 
the Persian Gulf. The surface is diversified by cluster- 
ing hills and mountain-ranges, with extensive salt plains 
and sandy deserts. In many parts of the country the 
soil is very rich and fertile ; especially is this true in the 
valleys where an abundance of water can be had for 
irrigating purposes. 

The chief products are wheat, rice, maize and barley 
among cereals ; while among fruits, the orchards yield 
apples, pears, peaches, cherries, oranges, apricots and most 
delicious pomegranates. Dates also form a common arti- 
cle of food. Melons and garden-vegetables abound. 
Many of these Persian fruits are said to be " unequalled 
in nourishing power, in savoriness, in richness of flavor, 
and in beauty of appearance, by any of the same kind 
produced elsewhere on the earth." Cotton, tobacco and 
sugar are also cultivated. 

Among wild animals, in various, parts of Persia, may 
be found the lion, the tiger, the antelope, the wild-ass 
and wild-hog, the hyaena, and deer of various kinds. 
Domestic animals and birds are numerous, while fish are 
said to be scarce, except on the shore of the Caspian Sea. 



66 ZOROASTER. 

The Persians are a bright and handsome race. Thej 
are polite, courteous, refined, intelligent, gay, witty, and, 
at the same time, false and cunning. They manufacture 
fire-arms and fine jewelry, elegant silks and woollens, and 
the richest carpets and shawls. And their commerce 
with other nations is quite extensive. 

The Grovernment is despotic. The Shah or chief 
ruler wields an absolute power over his people. He is 
at perfect liberty to do whatever he pleases with the lives 
and property of his subjects, without fear of restraint 
from law, public opinion, church, or aristocracy. And 
all the subordinate officers enjoy like freedom with 
regard to persons below them. Such a social state, con-- 
tinning for many centuries, has without doubt exercised 
a baneful influence upon the national character, hindered 
the progress of civilization, and prevented the introduction 
and use of many modern improvements and inventions. 

At the present day the prevailing religion is Moham- 
medanism. The first religion of this people was essen- 
tially a monotheism, in which the supreme Deity was 
symbolized by the sun and by fire. But in course of 
time the Magi, or fire-priests allowed the ceremonies to 
be changed and corrupted. 

Then Zoroaster arose as a reformer. He taught the 
existence of a supreme God who created two other 
mighty beings, and imparted to them something of his 



ZOROASTER. - 57 

own nature. Of these, Orimizd remained faitlifiil to his 
creator, and was regarded as a spirit of liglit and the 
source of all good, while Ahriman rebelled and became 
a spirit of darkness and the author of all evil upon the 
earth. Ormuzd created man to be happy, but Ahriman 
interfered, and plagued man's life by creating savage 
beasts and poisonous plants and reptiles. In consequence 
of this, good and evil are now everywhere mingled 
together in the world, and are continually contending for 
the mastery in a strife that will last to the end of time. 
Then the spirit of light shall become everywhere victo- 
rious, and the evil spirit with all his followers be con- 
signed to eternal darkness. The religion of Zoroaster 
began to prevail about the time of Cyrus, 550 B. C, and 
continued to flourish till the seventh century of the 
Christian era, when the Saracen conquest of Persia com- 
pelled many of her inhabitants to renounce their ancient 
faith. Some refused to abandon the faith of their 
fathers, and lied to the deserts of Kerraan, to India and 
Hindustan, where their children still exist under the 
name of Parsees, fro:n Pars, the ancient title of Persia. 
These refugees are distinguished for honesty and purity 
of life. The Arabs call them Guebers, or unbelievers. 

Allusions to the Persian worship may be found in the 
poetry of "Wordsworth and in the Childe Harold of 
Byron. -In Moore's Lalla Eookh, the finest tale, entitled 
The Fire Worshippers, deals with the same subject. The 
Gueber chief exclaims : 

" Yes! I am of that Impious race, 
Those slaves of Fire, that morn and even 



58 belshazzar's banquet. 

Hail tUeir creator's dwelling-place 
Among the living lights of heaven; 
Yes ! I am of that outcast crew 
To Iran and to vengeance true, 
Who curse the hour your Arabs came 
To desecrate our shrines of flame 
And swear before God's burning eye, 
To break our country's chains or die." 

The history of Persia as a dominion of power and 
importance begins with the reign of Cyrus. Before his 
time the Persians were subject to the Modes. Astyages, 
the last Median king, alarmed by a vision of losing his 
crown, ordered his infant grandson to be put to death in 
the obscurity of a remote forest. But Cyrus escaped 
such a fate, owing to the compassion of the shepherd 
appointed to commit the murder. When he grew to 
manhood, he led the Persians to throw off the Median 
yoke, and by a brilliant succession of other victories he 
became the founder of an empire that embraced nearly 
all the civilized nations of Asia. One of his greatest 
achievements was capturing the city of Babylon. The 
Babylonians, deeming themselves perfectly safe and 
secure within the impregnable walls of their city, were 
celebrating a festival, and King Belshazzar was con- 
temptuously defiling the sacred vessels of the captive 
Jews, when the Persians entered the town through the 
channel of the river, the waters of which they had 
drained off, slew the king, and subdued the country. 
The following poem describes Belshazzar s banquet: 

BELSHAZZAR'S BANQUET. 

Belshazzar is King! Belshazzar is lord! 
And a thousand dai k nobles ail bend at his board,— 
Fruits glisten, flowers blossom, meats steam, and a flood 
Of the wine that man loveth runs redder than blood ; 
Wild dancers are there, and a riot of mirth, 
And the beauty that maddens the passions of earth; 

And the crowds all shout, 

Till the vast roofs ring,— 
•' All praise to Belsliazzar, Belshazzar the King!" 



CAMBYSES. 59 

" Bring forth," cries the monarch, •• the vessels of gold, 
Which my father tore down from the temples of old: 
Bring forth; and we'll drink, while the trnmpets are blown 
To the gods of bright silver, of gold, and of stone. 
Bring forth!*'— and before him the vessels all shine, 
And lie bows nnto Baal, and he drinks the dark wine; 

While the trumpets bray, 

And the cymbals ring,— 
•* Praise, praise to Belshazzar, Belshazzar the King!" 

Now what cometh? look, look!— without menace, or call. 

Who writes with the lightning's bright hand on the wall? 

What pierceth the king, like the point of a dart? 

What drives the bold blood from his cheek to his heart? 

•' Chaldeans! magicians! the letters expound!" 

They are read ;— and Belshazzar is dead on the ground. 

Hark!— the Persian is come 

On a conqueror's wing; 
And a Mede on the throne of Belshazzar is King ! 

—Proctor (Barry Coimwall). 

Soon after the capture of Babylon, Cyrus fell in a bat- 
tle against the Massagetse. The queen of that people, 
smarting under the loss of a son who was slain in the 
battle, and thirsting for revenge, cast the head of Cyrus 
into a vessel filled with human blood, saying, " I live and 
have conquered thee in fight; and yet by thee am I 
ruined, for thou tookest my son with guile; but thus I 
make good my threat, and give thee thy fill of blood." 

Cyrus was succeeded by Cambyses, one of the kings 
called Ahasuerus in the Bible, a man whose character 
was sensual and cruel. Still he extended his empire by 
reducing Egypt to the state of a dependent province, and 
by conquering a great part of northern Africa. After a 
violent reign of seven years, Cambyses died, some say by 
suicide, others by an accidental wound from his own 
sword, inflicted while mounting his horse. 

Some time after this, seven Persian nobles conspired 
to raise one of their number to the throne. They agreed 
to meet at sunrise without the city on horseback, and to 



60 XERXES. 

choose that one king whose horse should be the first to 
neigh. Darius Hystaspes (521 B. C.,) secured the 
crown by a trick of his groom. The rhan brought his 
master's horse the evening before with a mare to the 
appointed place; and the next morning when the horse 
returned he remembered the mare and neighed; where- 
upon Darius was immediately saluted king. His reign 
of thirty-six years was distinguished by several important 
wars. From an expedition against the Scythian tribes 
dwelling beyond the Danube, he was forced to retreat 
with loss. He then overran Thrace and Macedonia, and 
next invaded the territory bordering on the Indus, which 
he subdued, and formed into a twentieth satrapy, under 
the name of India. Not content with this success, he 
resolved to conquer Greece. Being foiled in his first 
attempt by the Athenians, it is said that Darius called 
for a bow and shot an arrow into the air with this 
prayer : '^ Grant, O Jupiter, that I may be able to revenge 
myself upon the Athenians." And in order that he 
might never forget his purpose, he bade a servant thrice 
every time dinner was set before him to exclaim, " Mas- 
ter ! remember the Athenians." He had reason to remem- 
ber the Athenians, for his vast army, numbering more 
than 100,000 men, was subsequently defeated with great 
slaughter on the plains of Marathon, not far from Athens. 

Shortly after this signal disaster the reign of Darius 
ended; and he was succeeded by his son Xerxes, 486 
B. C. Most probably Xerxes is the same as the Ahas- 



XERXES. 61 

uerusjwlio was the husband of the faithful Jewess, Esther, 
whose heroic conduct is recorded in the Scriptures This 
monarch renewed the attempt to subjugate the Greeks, 
and for this purpose he gathered a vast army and fleet ; 
but his forces were sorely defeated, on land and sea, and 
he, himself, barely escaped from the scene of action in 
a miserable fishing-boat. After reigning twenty-one years 
he was assassinated. The subsequent military history 
of Persia is of little importance and may be continued 
with that of Greece. 

The Persians soon lost their hardy courage and simple 
manners. The luxury and magnificence of the court, with 
its crowds of priests and officials, with its retinue of ser- 
vants and guards, consumed the revenues of the country, 
and" destroyed the prosperity of the provinces. The 
most distant regions were taxed to furnish the royal table 
with the choicest delicacies and wines. A harem of vain 
and intrio-uino; women who were accustomed to lavish 
enormous sums upon their wardrobes and ornaments, 
largely increased the annual budget of expenses. The 
court followed the seasons, passing the winter in the 
mild and genial climate of Babylon, spending the spring 
at Susa, and avoiding the heat of summer by a residence 
farther north, in the cool town of Ecbatana. The satraps, 
or governors of the several provinces imitated the royal 
extravagance and greatly oppressed their defenceless 
subjects by their unreasonable extortions to supply the 
means to gratify their vicious appetites. Gradually the 
nation degenerated, and sank into that state of utter cor- 



62 CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 

niption and imbecility which has been so graphically- 
depicted, not from a disordered imaojination, but from 
the very life, by the author of Xenophon's historical 
romance. 

And yet, as already intimated, the modern Persians 
have been awakened from their lethargic slumber and 
stimulated to new activity by their increased intercourse 
with European nations. 

The cuneiform inscriptions, made with wedge-shap- 
ed characters, are the chief remains of the ancient Persian 
language. At Behistun, an ancient and ruined town, 
there is a remarkable limestone mountain, rising to the 
height of 1700 feet and almost perpendicular on one side. 
Here the famous queen, Semiramis, is said to have 
encamped on one of her travels, and having cut away the 
lower part of the rock, caused her portrait to be carved 
there. Thirteen human figures, sculptured on the rock, 
have been discovered here ; one representing King Da- 
rius I.; and beside these figures, many long columns of 
Cuneiform inscriptions, which Sir H. Rawlinson has 
taken pains to decipher. 

" The labor," says Rawlinson, " bestowed on the whole 
work must have been enormous. But the real wonder 
of the work consists in the inscriptions. For extent, for 
beauty of execution, for uniformity and correctness, they 
are perhaps unequalled in the world. It is evident that 
after the engraving of the rock had been accomplished, 
a coating of silicious varnish had been laid on to give a 



CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. 63 

clearness of outline to each individual letter, and to pro- 
tect the surface against the action of the elements." In 
addition to these ancient records, a few proper names and 
terms for vessels and garments have survived in the 
Bible, chiefly in the book of Daniel. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

Cleopatra.— Most kind messenger. 
Say to jz;reat Caesar this, In disputation 
I kiss liis conquering hand: tell him I am prompt 
To lay my crown at his feet, and there to kneel. 
Tell liim from his all-obeying breath I hear 
The doom of Egypt.— Six akp:speare. 

^jf OYPT. Eo^ypt is a long and narrow strip of country, 
^^ in tlie north-eastern part of Africa, lying on either 
side of the Nile and bounded by the Mediterranean and 
Red Seas, and by Nubia and the Great Desert. Ha\dng 
these fixed natural boundaries, it has had nearly the same 
area throughout its entire history. The length of the 
valley, from the cataract of Ass wan to the mouth of the 
river, is over 500 miles, w^hile the average breadth is 
•7 miles. Egypt, proper, contains about the same num- 
ber of square miles as the state of California. The 
river Nile is the most important physical feature of 
Egypt and the source of its fertility. Unlike other riv- 
ers, this one receives no tributary stream for the last 1300 
miles of its course. And another remarkable thing about 
it is its periodical overflow, whereby the adjacent tract 
of land is inundated and fertilized. At Thebes the 
water rises 36 feet, and at Cairo about 25 feet. Herod- 
otus states that in ancient times the Nile had seven 

m 

mouths, but at present there are only two, the Rosetta 
and the Damietta mouths. And enclosed between these 
two channels and the Mediterranean is a triangular ter- 



PRODUCTIONS. 65 

ritory, known as tlie Delta, from its resemblance to the 
Greek letter of that name. 

The climate of Egypt during tlie greater part of the 
year is dry and equable. In the Delta, the mean tempera- 
ture of summer is about 82° Fahrenheit and that of 
winter 54°. For nearly two months in spring a hot 
scorching wind called Chamsin, or Simoon, rises in the 
desert and blows over Egypt. It is much dreaded by the 
inhabitants, as it often proves fatal to animal life, partly 
on account of the fine sand and suffocating dust with 
wliich it is laden, and partly on account of its heat, which 
sometimes reaches 126°. The north wind however,, pre- 
vails for eight months of the year, and coming fresh from 
the sea brings health on its wings, and help to those who 
wish to ascend the river. 

Productions. — Egypt is a land of most remarkable 
fertility. No part of the earth can boast of a richer soil. 
Indeed, the surface is renewed and enriched ever}^ year 
by the deposits from the overflow of the river. Not 
only wheat and barley and similar grains are produced, 
but also those which require a hotter climate. Cotton, 
sugar, and tobacco grow in abundance ; and figs and 
oranges, and other tropical fruits flourish here. And the 
growth is so rapid that the same piece of land w^ill pro- 
duce two crops a year. The productiveness seems to be 
inexhaustible, owing to the depth and quality of the soil. 
In the Delta the soil is said to be fifteen feet deep. 
The quarries of Egypt furnish an abundance of good 



66 HISTORICAL PERIODS. 

building stone. In the southern part at Asswan, red 
granite or syenite is found, and this is the principal 
material used in forming the towering obelisks, and other 
colossal monolithic monuments of ancient Egypt. The 
great temples at Thebes and elsewhere, were built chiefly 
of sandstone, while the pyramids are constructed of lime- 
stone found in their vicinity. And there are two quite 
noted tracts covered with the trunks of petrified trees^ 
one in the desert of the natron lakes, near the western 
border of the Delta, and the otlier between the Nile and 
Suez. Porphyry, alabaster and emeralds are also found 
among the stones of Egypt. 

A great variety of wild animals is found here. The 
most common are the wolf, hyena, jackal, jerboa, ante- 
lope, and the crocodile. The latter is now seldom seen 
below the first cataract of the Nile. And the hippopot- 
amus which was formerly found here has entirely disap- 
peared. Besides the ordinary domestic animals the 
Egyptians own and use great numbers of camels in their 
trade across the deserts. 

Among the birds of Egypt may be mentioned the vul- 
ture, and the eagle, the quail, the ostrich, and the Ibis. 

The most important trees are the palm, the sycamore, 
the cypress, and the tamarisk. Among the native plants 
are the acacia from which gum arabic is obtained, and 
the famous lotns and papyrus. 

The history of Egypt is divided into three pi'incipal 
periods, namely : 

1. Ancient, 

2. Macedonian and Roman, 

3. Mohammedan and Modern. 



ANCIENT EGYPT. 67 

Ancient Egypt. — According to etlinologists, the early 
inhabitants of Egypt were the descendants of Ham, one 
of Noah's sons. Menes is the name of the first king who 
is mentioned as having ruled over this country. Poole 
fixes his epoch at 2717 B. C, Other chronologists think 
that his date was still earlier. He is said to have founded 
the city of Memphis, but no contemporary monument& 
of his reign are extant. 

Sesostris, 1500 B. C, is the next monarch worthy of 
mention. He subdued the Ethiopians and compelled 
them to pay tribute, and he also conquered and ruled 
over a considerable portion of Africa and Asia. 

Moeris, another king, is renowned for having excavated 
a lake, which afterwards bore his name. Herodotus con- 
sidered this work superior even to the pyramids and 
the labyrinth. It was made for the purpose of regulat- 
ing the inundation of the Nile. To show that it was 
entirely the work of human art, two pyramids were built 
in its center, rising 300 feet above the surface of the 
water when the lake was full, and extending an equal 
distance below the surface, while there rested on the sum- 
mit of each a colossus, in a sitting posture. The lake is 
.said to have been well stocked with fish, the profits of 
which were devoted to furnish the queen with clothes 
and perfumery. 

Moeris also constructed the famous labyrinth which 
Bunson considered " the most gorgeous edifice on the 
globe.'' It is said to have contained twelve palaces and 
3000 saloons; 



68 THE GKEAT PYRAMID. 

Cheops, 2170 B. C, is noted for having built the 
great pyramid. This work deserves more than a pass- 
ing notice, as it is universally regarded as one of the 
grandest ^monuments in the world. Indeed the ancients 
counted the pja-amids among the seven wonders of the 
world. The largest of these " memorials of the world's 
youth " is the pyramid of Cheops. It is 12 miles from 
Cairo, and 7 from the banks of the Nile, very near the 
southern point of the Delta. Apparently, an attempt 
was made to erect it on the parallel of latitude 30'' N., 
and to direct its faces exactly towards the cardinal points. 
Its base covers about 13 acres, and its original height was 
not far from 480 feet. It has been supposed that many 
important truths are indicated by its form, dimensions 
and situation, such as the number of days in the year, 
the ratio of tlie diameter to the circumference of a circle, 
the distance of the sun from the earth, and the date of 
its construction before the birth of Christ. 

And accordingly Piazzi Smyth and others have thought 
and claimed that it was " built for higher purposes than 
sepulture, which was undoubtedly the object of the 
remaining pyramids." Some scholars even do not hesi- 
tate to believe that its builder was divinely aided and 
instructed in its erection, and Melchizedek has been named 
as the heaven - appointed architect. Professor Piazzi 
Smyth may be mistaken in his deductions ; in studying 
the subject he may have allowed too much freedom to 
his fancy and imagination: but certainly no one can deny 
tliat the great pyramid is a most extraordinary model of 



THE GREAT PYRAMID. 69 

constructive skill. It is not simply a mass of piled-up 
stones. The joints between the casing-stones are almost 
imperceptible. They match so closel}^ that a sheet of 
paper cannot be inserted between them. The passages 
leading to the interior chambers were made perfectly 
smooth, and nothing was allowed to remain and arrest 
the sarcophagus. The most exquisite finish was given to 
everything. 

But how were these great blocks of stones placed in 
position at their various heights until the top stone was 
put upon the summit and the gigantic work completed ? 

In answer to this question Poole says, ''the most 
reasonable conjecture that can be ofltered is that inclined 
planes ran along the sides of the giant steps in which 
the pyramid was built, and that the stones were dragged 
up them by the workmen." 

It is said that 100,000 men were employed for 40 years 
in building it. They were probably slaves who received 
no wages. The Israelites may have helped to build some 
of the pyramids, though not this one; for, if the date of 
this one be 2170 B. C, as above stated, it was erected 
aboiit TOO years prior to their bondage. 

An inscription on it in Egyptian characters states how 
much had been expended in furnishing radishes, garlics^ 
and onions to the workmen. The sum amounted to 
$1,700,000 of our money. Doubtless all such state- 
ments are to be taken with a grain of allowance. The 
oriental habit of exaggeration, not to say of men- 
dacity, is well known. The pyramids were principally 



70 THE SPHINX. 

designed to serve as sepulchres for the dead, where the 
bodies of the royal family might be preserved in security 
during their appointed term, at the end of which they 
would ^e resurrected and again inhabited by their spirits. 
The ancient Egyptians believed in the doctrine of the 
transmigration of souls. They imagined that the departed 
spirit was doomed for a period of 3000 years to occupy 
various animal forms and to lead a more or less wretched 
existence according to his deserts, till he was permitted 
to return and resume his human body and enter again 
upon a new life on the earth. Thus arose the custom of 
embalming the bodies of the dead, and of taking such 
care to preserve them in air-tight cases or in the endless 
wrappings of the mummy, and to deposit them out of 
the reach of the river in these dry pyramids, and there 
hermetically seal and hide them from the prying curiosity 
of man and the hungry search of the wild beast. 

The Sphinx is another attractive monument of this 
strange country. The most noted one is near the great 
pyramid. It is a monster, sixty feet high, with the body 
of a lion and a human head, and may be considered, 
therefore, as emblematic of the union of physical foi'ce 
and intellectual power required to plan and build such 
mighty monuments, which have resisted the wear and 
the war of the elements for so many centuries, which 
liave outlasted so many generations of men, and which 
seem destined to survive and tower above the wrecks of 
time itself. 



THE OBELISK. 71 

The Obelisk is still another variety of monument 
from this wonderful region. It is a towering monolithic 
column, with square base and tapering shaft ending in a 
pyramidal top. Its sides are covered with vertical lines 
of hieroglyphics recording the titles and merits of the 
person by whom it was dedicated, and of the deity to 
whom it was sacred. Obelisks were usually erected in 
pairs before a doorway. They were quarried in the south- 
ern part of Egypt, and floated down the rivers on raft's 
to their destination, where it is supposed they were set 
up by means of inclined planes. Many of these curious 
trophies of antiquity have been carried to distant lands. 

The tallest, that of the Lateran at Eome, is 106 feet 
high ; and the shortest, that of the Florence Museum, is 
about 6 feet in height. The one in the Place de la 
Goncordey Paris, is from Luxor. The one recently 
erected in Central Park, New York, was brought from 
Alexandria ; and its companion, which was removed to 
London a few years ago, was known as Cleopatra's Nee- 
dle. The pair were originally erected before the tem- 
ple of the sun at Heliopolis, where they stood for 
eighteen centuries before they were transported to Alex- 
andria at the beginning of the Christian era. According 
to Greek and Eoman w^riters the obelisk represents a 
sunbeam. 

Wilkinson draws the following reasonable inference 
respecting their design: "The Egyptians naturally 
looked on those monuents with feelings of veneration, 
being connected with their religion and the glorious 



72 THEBES. 

memory of their monarchs ; and at the same time per- 
ceived that in buildings constructed as their temples 
were, the monotony of numerous horizontal lines 
required a relief of this kind." 

Thebes. — The buildings next in importance to the 
pyramids are the palace -temples of Thebes in the 
southern part of Egypt. The remains of this once 
magnificent city lie on both sides of the river Nile, and 
extend two or three miles along the river and the same 
distance across the valley. The most imposing of these 
ruins are found at Karnak and Luxor, on the eastern 
shore. The great palace-temple at Karnak was the 
grandest structure of the kind in the world. The ave- 
nues leading to it were lined with rows of Colossal 
sphinxes, and at the entrances stood lofty obelisks and 
stupendous gateways adorned with sculptures most won- 
derful to behold. There were so many of these gate- 
ways or triumphal arches that Homer calls Thebes ''the 
hundred-gated city." The Hall of the Gods is 330 feet 
long and 164 feet wide. On each side near the wall is 
a row of 134 columns, each a monolith 43 feet high with 
a diameter of 12 feet. In the center of the hall are two 
other rows of monolithic columns 72 feet high, thus 
dividing the hall into a nave with two side aisles. ^''AU 
were roofed, the nave of course higher than the aisles. 
The ceiling of all was of massive hewn flat stone ; it has 
long since fallen to the ground. All the columns have 

*W. H. Seward's Travels around the World. 



THEBES. 73 

highly-wrought and magnificent capitals, no two of them 
alike in design." Some were adorned with the figures 
of birds and the branching foliage of the flowering lotus ; 
while others were devoted to mythology and history. 
Only a faint light admitted through small grated win- 
dows was allowed to relieve the darkness of the interior^ 
"The mysterious gloom, which must have originally per- 
vaded the chamber has passed away, and it now seems 
merely an endless and confused forest of columns which 
has been swept and desolated by the tempest." But con- 
sidering the age of these ruins — they are more than 
33 centuries old — they are remarkably well preserved. 
This no doubt is owing to the clear dry climate of the 
Nile. On no part of the ruin can be found "ivy or 
moss, mould or stain." One of the bass-reliefs sculp- 
tured on the outer walls represents a victorious king 
returning to Thebes with a train of prisoners in chains. 
Another scene shows how he is welcomed by his min- 
isters and courtiers on the banks of the Nile, while 
crowds of crocodiles gaze with awe and wonder at the 
strange sight. 

On the west bank of the river are two majestic statues^ 
and the remains of many more which once were seated 
along the approach to the beautiful palace of a king. 
They are known as the statues of Memnon, and they bear 
the name and titles of Amenophis III, about 1400 B. C. 
One of them gave out musical sounds at sunrise, which 
were believed to be the morning salutations of Memnon 
to his mother Eos or Aurora. Much speculation has 



74 PHAROS. 

been caused by this harp-like music or tone which 
sounded forth from the top of the statue. 

Several explanations have been suggested. The 
Egyptians from the remotest ages have been noted for 
mechanical skill. In the time of Moses their priests 
could imitate miracles and perform many magical and 
wonderful tricks. Now it is likely that they ingeniously 
contrived to put some u^olian harp or other musical 
instrument into the head of Memnon and caused it to 
play by clock-work or otherwise at the rising and setting 
of the sun. One writer attributes the sound to the 
expansion of the stone by the heat of the sun. 

These ruins prove that the ancient Egyptian artists 
and architects possessed a noble sense of proportions. 
Their sculpture never, wearies the beholder by its 
grandeur, while the admirer of the beautiful will often 
be delighted by form, color, delicate carving and the 
perfection of taste exhibited in the ornamentation. 

Clarence Cook, who is a recognized authority in mat- 
ters of architecture, says that ^'any notice of the Egyptian 
buildings of this period that should fail to hint at their 
beauty would leave an incomplete impression, but we 
too often find this praise forgotten in the wonder excited 
by their stupendous feats of building." 

Pharos. — At the death of Alexander the Great, wlio 
in his victorious career had conquered the world, Egypt 
fell to Ptolemy Soter as his share of the conquest. He 
built on the island of Pharos in the bay of Alexandria 



LIBRAKY AT ALEXANDRIA. 75 

a tower wl.ich was reckoned by the ancients among the 
seven wonders of the world. 

It was constructed of white marble and rose to the 
lofty height of 4U0 feet. Its several stories were 
adorned with columns galleries and balustrades, all 
exhibitmg the exquisite finish of the finest workman- 
ship. On the top, there were fires which were 
kept constantly burning in the night in order to warn 
and direct the sailors how to avoid or encounter the dan- 
gers and difficulties of the bay. This lighthouse is said 
to have cost the king 800 talents or nearly a million dol- 
lars. 

The following inscription translated from the Greek 
was cut into the marble of the tower : Sostratus the 
Cmdtan, son of Bexiphanes, to the gods the preservers 
for the benefit of mariners. Sostratus was the architect 
and the story is told of him that wishing in after ages to en- 
joy all the merit and glory of the work, he deeply cut the 
above inscription and covered it over as he proceeded with 
cement upon which he wrote another inscription ascrib 
ing the honor of building the tower to King Ptolemy 
who was rightly entitled to the credit of the work. The 
cement, however, crumbled away and with it the mon- 
arch's name disappeared and the other became visible. 

No remains of this famous tower are known to exist 
at the present day. Ptolemy also founded the cele- 
brated library at Alexandria which is said at one time 
to have contained 700,000 volumes embracing the whole 



76 SEPTUAGINT. 

Greek and Latin literature, of which we possess only 
fragments. His son and successor Ptolemy Philadelpus, 
so called because he married his own sister, invited 
learned men to reside at his capital and generously pat- 
ronized literary works. 

During his reign the Hebrew Scriptures were trans- 
lated into Greek. This is the earliest Greek translation 
and is known as the Septuagint version from the 
seventy scholars engaged upon the work. Josephus 
repeats an old fabulous account of its origin to the 
effect that King Ptolemy, at the instance of his librarian, 
sent to Jerusalem to procure from the high priest a copy 
of the Jewish Law, and to make arrangements for a 
Greek translation of the same to be added to his great 
library. The high priest at once entered into the pro- 
ject, chose seventy-two learned men, six from each tribe, 
and sent them to Egypt with a splendid copy of the Law 
written on parchment in letters of gold. As soon as 
they arrived at Alexandria they retired to the Island of 
Pharos, and having been shut up there in separate cells 
they worked independently for seventy-two days and 
then came forth and compared their several versions and 
found a result wonderful to tell, namely all the trans- 
lations agreed exactly verbatim et literatim. 

The early Christian Fathers who delighted to recount 
this marvelous tale with embellishments devised by their 
vivid imaginations, do not hesitate to assert that the 
translators were fitted for the task by being divinely 



R08ETTA STONE. 77 

inspired. Whether or not this be true the legend surely 
serves to show the high estimation in which the version 
was held by scholars at the beginning of the Christian 
era. 



Rosetta Stone, — At Rosetta a town on the western 
side of the Delta a French officer of engineers in 1799 
found a stone with a trilingual inscription upon it. The 
slab, which is now in the British Museum, is of black 
basalt about a yard square and ten inches thick. This 
famous discovery furnished the key for deciphering the 
hieroglyphs on the monuments. " The same text is 
repeated first in hieroglyphics, secondly in enchorial 
characters, lastly in Greek ; but the stone is so mutilated 
at the corners and one edge, that the first part of the 
hieroglyphic text and the last part of the Greek are lost, 
as well as the beginning of several lines of the encho- 
rial." After years of study Dr. Young and M. Cham- 
poUion succeeded in finding the key and deciphering the 
hieroglyphs. 

Bunsen regarded this as the greatest discovery of the 
century; for by means of it a flood of 'light has been 
thrown upon ancient Egyptian history. 

Lepsius in 1866 discovered a larger and better pre- 
served trilingual inscription at San, but of course it will 
never be as famous as that of the Rosetta Stone, which 
was the first to furnish the key. 



78 CLEOPATRA. 

Phoenix. — Among the birds held sacred by the 
Egyptians was one called the Phoenix. The fabulous 
account of it as given in Latin poetry and history makes 
it a very marvelous bird indeed. It springs from the 
ashes of its father. Its food consists of neither fruit 
nor flowers but of frankincense and odoriferous gums. 
After living five hundred years it builds a nest on the 
top of a palm tree and there breathes its life away 
amidst the sweet fragrance of cinnamon, spikenard and 
myrrh. 

Then the young Phoenix comes forth and when it has 
gained sufficient strength it lifts the nest and carries it 
aw^ay to the city of Heliopolis to the temple of the sun, 
and lays it on the altar to be consumed in flames of 
fragrance. 

Herodotus describes the bird though he confesses that 
he never saw it. He says it was like the eagle in out- 
line and size with gray plumage of crimson and gold. 

A modern writer assigns as a reason for the rare 
appearance of the Phoenix that instinct teaches it to keep 
out of the sight of man, the tyrant of creation, for if dis- 
covered some wealthy glutton would surely kill and 
devour it though there were no more to be had in all 
the world. 

Cleopatra. — The Ptolemies ruled Egypt from 323 B. 
C. to 31 B. C, and the last of the line was the famous 
queen Cleopatra. 



CLEOPATRA. , 79 

Every historian who has attempted to portray her char- 
acter, has paid glowing tributes to her beauty, talents 
and accomplishments. Besides being proficient in music, 
she understood Latin and Greek and could hold con- 
versation with Ethiopians, Arabians, Jews, Syrians, 
Medes, and Persians without an interpreter. To claim 
that she was perfect and blameless in all her conduct 
would be false and foolish. But her most glaring frail- 
ties must be ascribed to the absurd marriage customs of 
her day, rather than to innate depravity and baseness 
of nature. 

The usage of the Egyptian court compelled her to 
marry her oldest brother and share the throne with 
him, an abominable regulation which no doubt 
was the chief cause of her subsequent wayward ca- 
reer. An insurrection drove her to seek refuge in 
Syria and when it was quelled she learned that her broth- 
er-husband was plotting against her life and trying to 
usurp her share of the kingdom. It was at this crisis 
that she had recourse to the stratagem of being convey- 
ed through the hostile lines and into the presence of 
Caesar in the form of a large bale of goods. He settled 
the matter for the time with the king. But soon a sec- 
ond revolt broke out in which Ptolemy lost his life by 
drowning and then Cleopatra was forced to marry a 
younger brother only eleven years old and take him as a 
colleague on the throne. Is it any wonder that under 
such circumstances this fair and fascinating princess found 
relief and pleasure in the society of the brilliant Csesar? 



80 CLEOPATRA. 

A few years afterwards she succeeded in making an- 
other celebrated conquest when she completely won the 
heart of Mark Antony. 

It seems that Antony ordered her to meet him in 
Cilicia and answer, if she could, some charges which had 
been made against her conduct. The meeting which 
she gave him has been described by the pen of the his- 
torian and also by the prince of English dramatists. 

Plutarch says : " She sailed along the river Cydnus in 
a most magnificent galley. The stern was covered with 
gold, the sails were of purple, and the oars were silver. 
These in their motion kept time to the music of flutes 
and pipes and harps. The queen in the dress and 
character of Yenus lay under a canopy embroid- 
ered with gold, of the -most exquisite workmanship ; 
while boys, like painted cupids, stood fanning her on 
each side of the sofa. Her maids were of the most dis- 
tinguished beauty and, habited like the Nereids and the 
Graces, assisted in the steerage and conduct of the ves- 
sel. The fragrance of burning incense was diffused 
along the shores, which were covered with multitudes of 
people. Some followed the procession ; and such num- 
bers went down from the city to see it that Antony was 
at last left alone on the tribunal. A rumor was soon 
spread that Venus was come to feast with Bacchus for 
the benefit of Asia. Antony sent to invite her to sup- 
per, but she thought it his duty to wait upon her, and 
to show his politeness on her arrival he complied." 

Slie met the illustrious Roman commander and led 



CLEOPATRA. 81 

him captive at her will. By the irresistible charms of 
her manners, by the sweet music of her voice, and by 
her loving and artful companionship she enchained his 
affections, lulled his proud ambition to sleep, and induc- 
ed him to lead a life of disgraceful dissipation at her 
court and banish from his mind and memory the claims 
of his country and his honor. But at length the^ end 
came. Their forces suffered defeat at the battle of 
Actium. Anton}^ committed suicide and Cleopatra, fear- 
ing that she might be forced to grace the victor's triumph, 
is thought to have followed her fond lover's example in 
taking her own life. 

The only mark of violence which could be found on 
her person was a small puncture in one arm; and it was 
therefore supposed that the unhappy queen had procur- 
ed death either by the bite of an asp or by the self-in- 
flicted thrust of a poisoned bodkin. 

During the early days of Christianity Es^ypt was 
greatly disturbed by religious wars and tumults. In 640 
A. D. the Mohammedans invaded and conquered Egypt 
and the victorious general bore testimony to the great- 
ness of Alexandria by reporting to the Caliph Omar that 
" he had taken a city which beggared all description, in 
which he found 4000 palaces, 400 theatres," etc. Since 
then Egypt has been the scene of many bloody and convul- 
sive struggles. Fatimites, crusaders, Mamelukes, Otto- 
man Turks, and the French have in turn fought for the 
sovereignty. 



82 THE KHEDIVE. 

In 1804 Mehemet AH was appointed pasha of Cairo 
the modern capital of Egypt. He exercised nearly 
absolute power though he was nominally a vassal of the 
Turkish Sultan; and subsequently by a treaty the vice- 
royalty was made hereditary in his family. 

In 1867 the Turkish government bestowed upon the 
regent of Egypt the title of Khedive. In 1882 England 
interfered and quickly quelled a revolt against the author- 
ity of the Khedive. After the war was ended Arabi 
Pasha, the leader of the revolt, was arrested and handed 
over to the English. 



CHAPTER X. 



'* Where each old poetic mountain 
Inspiration breatlies around." 



/TREECE.— The peninsula of Greece is smaller than 
^ most of the states of the American Union ; its great- 
est length being not more than 250 miles and its width in 
the broadest part about 180 miles. The chief divisions 
were Epirus and Thessaly in the north, Hellas in the mid- 
dle, and Peloponnesus in the south. The modern name for 
the latter division is Morea, so called from its resemblance 
in outline to a mulberry leaf. The former title means 
the island of Pelops, from which it appears that the 
ancients disregarded the isthmus of Corinth, the nar- 
row neck of land that joins this part with the main land 
and converts it into a peninsula. 

The physical features of the country exercised an 
important influence in moulding the character of its peo- 
ple. Separated into many small tribes by mountain bar- 
riers they learned to love liberty, and at the same time, 
dwelling as they did on the shores of the sea, they had 
easy intercourse with their neighbors and with the sur- 
rounding nations. A deep obscurity hangs over the 
early history of Greece. It is hard and often impossi- 
ble to find the truth among the myths and fables. Any 
one who reads the legends of the Greeks and studies 



84 ORIGIN OF THE GREEKS. 

their traditions will need the keenest judgment to dis- 
tinguish between fact and fiction and yet with the great- 
est care in some cases he will be likely to make 
mistakes. 

Origin of the Greeks. 

It seems probable that the Greeks are a part of an 
Aryan migration which also spread over the other Medi- 
terranean peninsulas of Italy and Spain, and that they 
are descended from Javan or Ion, the fourth son of 
Japheth. They, however, trace their origin to Hellen 
and from him they call their land Hellas and them- 
selves Hellenes. -^ 

Hellen was reputed to. be the son of Deucalion who 
with his wife Pyrrha, as the story goes, was saved from 
a flood which drowned all the other inhabitants. When 
the waters subsided they came forth from the ship and 
offered sacrifices to Jupiter and prayed that the earth 
might be filled again with people, and in answer to their 
prayer they were bidden to vail their faces, unbind 
their garments, and cast behind them the bones of their 
mother. Startled by such a command, not knowing at 
first how to interpret it, they spent some time in try- 
ing to hit upon the right meaning. At length they con- 
cluded that the earth is the great mother of all and that 
the stones are her bones. Accordingly they obeyed the 
command and, strange to tell, the stones they threw 
became soft and assumed the human shape. Those from 



EGYPTIAN COLONY. 85 

Deucalion's hand rose up as men while those from 
Pyrrha's became women. 

Hellen had three sons, Aeolus, Dorus and Xuthus, and 
the latter had a son by the name of Ion the father of the 
lonians. Deucalion, Hellen and Ion are perhaps identi- 
cal with Noah, Japheth and Javan of the Bible. Dorus 
was the progenitor of the Dorians. And JEolus has been 
identified with the god of the winds, Boreas, Auster, 
Eurus, and Zephyr, the north, south, east and west winds 
respectively. He is also the deity for whom the ^olian 
harp is named because he sweeps its strings with his 
invisible breath. 

Another story accounts for an Egyptian colony at 
Argos. Two brothers Danaus and JEgyptus quarrel, 
and the result is that Danaus with his fifty daughters is 
obliged to flee from his home in Egypt and take refuge 
in Argos. Afterwards the fifty sons of ^gyptus follow 
them across the sea and entreat their uncle to forgive 
and forget past injuries and give them their fair cousins 
in marriage. He assents to their proposals but at the 
same time prepares for revenge by giving his daughters 
each a dagger and charging them to slay in the night 
the unsuspecting bridegrooms. 

All but one executed the cruel orders and in conse- 
quence, though they escaped punishment in this life, 
they were condemned in the lower world to draw water 
for ever in sieves. 

The daughters herein alluded to may signify springs of 



-86 , CADMUS. 

water found in Argos. In the figurative language of 
the Orient, springs are often termed daughters of the 
earth. Moreover the maids are said to have cut off the 
heads of their lovers. Head is a common name for 
fountain. And some see in the flow of the water a ref- 
erence to the welling forth of the life-current when the 
bloody deed was done. 

Still another story tells how Greece was peopled with 
inhabitants. Europa, a beautiful princess of Phoenicia, 
while gathering flowers near the seashore, discovered a 
white bull remarkably tame and gentle She fondled 
and caressed him hung, wreaths upon his horns and at 
length dared to mount his back. ^ No sooner had she done 
so, than he darted away,- plunged into the sea and swam 
with her to the island of Crete. 

Europe was named after her by her friends who came 
thither from Asia to search for her. 

Cadmus her brother traveled far and near to find her 
and finally came to Greece to consult the oracle of Apollo 
at Delphi. Here he was told to cease the search and 
directed to build a city. But first he had to encounter 
and kill a dragon and sow its teeth in the ground. This 
done, there sprang up forthwith a crop of bold warriors 
who fought and killed one another till only five remained 
alive. These made friends and aided Cadmus in build- 
ing the famous city of Thebes. The Greeks were in- 
debted to Cadmus for the alphabet of 16 letters. 



THKEE DISTINGUISHED HEROES. 87 

Three Distinguished Heroes. 

Hercules.— From early infancy Hercules was renown- 
«d for extraordinary personal strength. When only ten 
months old he strangled with his hands two hideous 
serpents which had crawled into his cradle to devour him. 
He owed his education mainly to the wise and good 
Chiron, the chief of the Centaurs, a fabulous race hav- 
ing horses' bodies and human heads. 

When he grew up to be a man, Yirtue and Yice 
appeared to him and each offered to be his guide. Vir- 
tue promised to lead him through many hard trials to a 
glorious seat at last among the gods ; whilst Vice tried 
to induce him to follow her by the promise of present 
delight, showing him a pathway strown with flowers, 
holding to his lips the sparkling wine-cup, inviting him 
to dance and enjoy a smooth and happy life. But the 
youth had been well trained and was not to be deceived. 
Unlike Samson, he chose Virtue for his leader, though 
his subsequent career proves that he did not always 
adhere very closely to his choice. 

Having been fully equipped by the gods he proceeded 
to perform the mighty exploits which have become pro- 
verbial. He killed the Nemeau lion, destroyed the 
many-headed hydra, caught the swift stag that had the 
golden horns, captured the wild boar, cleansed the 
Augean stables, shot the birds of prey, brought a white 
bull from Crete, secured the Thracian mares which fed 
on human flesh, obtained a girdle from the queen of the 



88 HERCULES. 

Amazons, slew the monster Geryon, carried away the 
apples from the garden of the Hesperides, seized and 
conveyed the three-headed dog Cerberus from the lower 
world. ^ These are commonly known as the twelve won- 
derful labors of Hercules. 

The hero performed many other feats some of which 
were quite as marvellous as those above mentioned. 

At times he was possessed with an ungovernable mad- 
ness, and in one of these spells he slew his friend Iphitus. 
For this offence he was condemned to be the slave of the 
queen of Lydia for three years. During this period of 
servitude, his nature seemed to change. He became 
effeminate, wore female attire and often sat spinning by 
the side of the queen with her women. Furthermore 
the once brave man is said to have received chastisement 
sometimes from the hand of the royal mistress, "who 
arrayed in his lion-skin and armed with his club, play- 
fully struck him with her sandal for his awkward way of 
holding the distaff." 

At last the hero met his death by clothing himself 
with a robe which had been secretly saturated with 
poison. And when he attempted to wrench off the'gar- 
ment it stuck to his flesh so that he could not remove it 
without frightfully lacerating his body. In his agony 
he seized Lichas, the messenger who had brought him 
the fatal tunic, and hurled him into the sea. 

At death his mortal part was consumed to ashes on 
the funeral pyre, while his lofty spirit went to dwell 



PEKSEUS. 89 

among the stars and to be united in marriage with Hebe 
the goddess of youth. 

As to the meaning of the story a scholiast on Hesiod 
^ remarks : " The zodiac in which the sun performs his 
annual course, is the true career which Hercules trav- 
erses in the fable of the twelve labors, and his marriage 
with Hebe the goddess of youth, whom he espoused 
after he had ended his labors, denotes the renewal of the 
year at the end of each solar revolution." 

The poet Schiller thus alludes to the ascension of Her- 
cules : 

'' Till the god, the earthly part forsaken, 
From the man in flames asunder taken, 
Drank the heavenly ether's purer breath. 
Joyous in the new unwonted lightness, 
Soared he upwards to celestial brightness, 
Earth's dark heavy burden lost in death. 
High Olympus gives harmonious greeting 
To the hall where reigns his sire adored; 
Youth's bright goddess, with a blush at meeting. 
Gives the nectar to her lord." 

Perseus.— The Greeks believed that their heroes were 
the sons of the gods. Perseus was reputed to be the 
son of Jupiter and Danae, the daughter of the King of 
Argos. When he was a little babe with bright eyes and 
beautiful golden hair, he and his mother were shut up 
in a chest and cast into the sea. 

But the winds and the waves, more merciful than the 
king who ordered the cruel act to be done, carried the 
box with its precious burden to a small island where a 
kind-hearted fisherman drew it ashore and conveyed the 



90 PERSEUS. 

mother and child to Polydectes, the rnler of the country 
to which they had come. 

Years afterwards when Perseus had grown to man- 
hood, the king managed to send him to the confines of 
the world to bring from thence the head of Medusa, a 
horrible monster. She was one of the Gorgons, once a 
beautiful maiden who dared to boast that her face was 
fairer than that of Minerva. To punish her vain pre- 
sumption, the goddess changed her hair, the chief of her 
charms, into hissing serpents, and overspread her face 
with such a frightful aspect as to petrify every living 
thing that chanced to look upon it. 

Nevertheless Perseus bravely prepared to go upon 
the dangerous mission. The gods came to his aid and 
furnished him a shield as bright as a mirror, and winged 
shoes, and a short curved sword and directed him how 
to achieve success in his perilous adventure. 

They first guided him to the abode of the Graiae, the 
three gray maids who lived so far out upon the borders 
of creation that the light of the sun and moon never fell 
upon them. They were such horrid old hags that they 
only had one eye and one tooth among them, which 
they used in turn. While the eye was being passed from 
one to another Perseus intercepted it and declined to 
return it till they promised to show him the way to the 
Nymphs, who kept the magic wallet, and the helmet of 
Pluto which rendered its wearer invisible. 

Having] obtained these requisite aids, Perseus came 
upon the Gorgons while tliey were asleep and taking 



PERSEUS. 91 

care not to look upon them but only to view their 
images reflected upon his bright shield, he cut oflE the 
head of Medusa, put it in the wallet, and escaped. 

The two sisters awoke and pursued him in vain as con- 
cealed by the helmet he mounted into the air and flew 
so swiftly away upon the winged shoes. 

On his return he punished Atlas, the mighty giant 
who supported the heavens upon his broad shoulders, for 
refusing to show him hospitality, by changing him into 
a mountain. One glance at the head of Medusa wrought 
the wondrous transformation. 

But the adventures of the hero were not yet over. 
As he continued his homeward flight he came to 
Ethiopia where he found a beautiful princess called 
Andromeda, chained to a rock. Her mother- had boasted 
that she was fairer than the l^ereids, the sea-nymphs, and 
thereby offended Neptune the god of the sea, who took 
revenge by sending a sea-monster to ravage the land 
and devour the cattle and people. Andromeda was to be 
sacrificed to the monster in order to appease the angry 
deity. 

Perseus at once came to the rescue. Hearing the 
monster coming, he bade the maiden to close her eyes 
and then he drew forth the Gorgon's head and instantly 
turned her foe to stone, cleft the lady's chains, and restored 
her to her parents, who out of gratitude rewarded the 
hero with her hand in marriage. One of her former 
suitors behaved so insolently at the feast on that occasion 
that Perseus felt obliged to change him also into ^tone. 



92 THESEUS. 

Perseus then took his bride and returned home where 
he arrived in time to deliver his mother from unwelcome 
attentions. The face of Medusa immediately petrified 
her persecutors. 

Having now accomplished the object of his journey 
the hero returned the borrowed outfit and gave the Gor- 
gon's head to Minerva, who placed it on her shield or 
aegis as she always called it. 

Afterwards while pitching a game of quoits he had 
the misfortune to hit and kill his grandfather, thus ful- 
filling an early prediction. He reigned many years and 
lived happily with Andromeda. At death they were sup- 
posed to be translated to the sky where they appear now 
among the northern constellations. 

This story of Perseus does not belong exclusively to 
the Greeks. It is told by many nations with variations. 

The English form of it appears in the tale of " Jack 
the Giant-Killer," who wore seven-leagued boots and a 
cap of mist and rescued fair ladies from their enemies. 

Theseus. — One of the most celebrated heroes of 
Greece was Theseus, the son of Aegeus or Neptune, king 
of Athens, and -^thra, daughter of a neighboring mon- 
arch at Troezene. He was reared in his grandfather's 
palace and when he attained the age of manhood he was 
to proceed to Athens and present himself before his 
father. 

When his mother thought the proper time had come, 
she led him to a huge mass of rock, under which his 



THESEUS. 98 

father had hidden a sword and a pair of shoes, and bade 
him test his strength by removing the stone, and then he 
could secure the objects wliich he would need for his 
journey and which would prove his identity to his sire. 

Theseus rolled away the rock with ease and found the 
sword and shoes and at once resolved to depart for 
Athens and to go by land, though strongly advised by his 
friends to take the shorter and safer route by water and 
avoid the roads which were known to be infested with 
fierce robbers. 

But the spirit of the hero courted adventure. He 
determined to distinguish himself like Hercules, with 
whose fame all Greece then rang, by destroying the 
thieves and monsters that ravaged the country and ter- 
rified travelers. 

On the way to Athens, among other deeds which he 
performed, he slew two notorious robbers, Sciron and 
Procrustes, serving them as they had served all previous 
comers. The former he hurled over a precipice to be 
dashed to pieces on the rocks below as he had invariably 
treated his unlucky victims. 

Procrustes had an iron bed upon which he had placed 
all persons that fell into his hands, and cut off or 
stretched out their limbs till they fitted the length of 
the bed. Theseus tried the same fatal experiment on 
the old scoundrel and thus rid the land of a long 
dreaded scourge. 

The youth then pursued his way to Athens, where in 
due time he was recognized by the king as his son. 



94 THESEUS. 

It seems that Athens at this period was subject to 
Crete, and was required every year to send a tribute of 
seven youths and seven maidens to be devoured by the 
Minotaur, a frightful monster half bull and half man. 
This horrid creature was kept in a labyrinth where 
there were so many winding paths that no one who once 
entered it could find his way out without assistance. 

When the next tribute was made up, Theseus volun- 
teered to go and free his country from the intolerable 
human tax or die in the attempt, telling his father that if 
he succeeded in killing the Minotaur as he hoped to do, 
he would change the black sails of the ship for white 
ones on his triumphant return.* 

X 

When he arrived at Crete he was presented at the royal 
court with his companions, and there he won the heart 
of the king's daughter, Ariadne, who gave him a clew of 
thread, by means of which he penetrated in safety the 
mazes of the labyrinth till he encountered and killed the 
Minotaur. He then followed the thread to the entrance 
of the labyrinth where he had fastened one end of it. 

Thus havinge scaped, he re-embarked, taking Ariadne 
with him, whom he soon deserted and left on the isle of 
Naxos, whether because he was tired of her or because he 
really believed that he was divinely directed so to do is 
uncertain. 

But while the princess was weeping over this cruelty, 
Venus came to comfort her; and shortly afterwards 
Bacchus gave her a golden crown, which is visible among 
the stars on a summer night. 



THESEUS. 95 

On approaching the coast of Attica, Theseus forgot the 
promised signal ; and thereupon his father, seeing the 
ship returning with black sails and thinking his brave 
son had perished in the hardy undertaking, fell down 
from the cliff where he was watching and was drowned 
just as Theseus sailed safely into port. 

The hero now turned his attention to the government, 
to which he succeeded by the death of his father. He 
abolished the division of the people into tribes and 
substituted that of three classes, the nobles, the husband- 
men, and the artisans. He reserved all the offices of 
state for the nobles, who were farther clothed with the 
privilege of controlling the affairs of religion and inter 
preting the laws both divine and human. As a further 
means of uniting the people and promoting their hap- 
piness he established nunierous festivals, some of which 
were celebrated with great splendor. 

Under his wise administration, the city grew^ and his 
subjects prospered. Civic cares howev^er did not entirely 
absorb his thoughts. He found time to engage in mili- 
tary enterprises. One of his victorious expeditions was 
against the Amazons whose queen he carried off and 
married. 

Theseus also shared the dangers of the Calydonian 
hunt, joined the Argonauts in quest of the golden fleece, 
fought against the centaurs, seized and carried away cap- 
tive the beautiful Helen, sister of Castor and Pollux, 
and even had the hardihood to unite with a friend in the 
perilous attempt to abduct Proserpina from the palace 



96 THESEUS. 

of Pluto. The result of the last foolhardy adventure was 
that he was caught and imprisoned by the monarch of 
Hades till the visit of Hercules to the lower regions, when 
he was released from durance vile by that hero. 

In his latter days Theseus suffered exile, the fate of all 
great Athenians. He retired to the island of Scyros and 
there lost his life, either by accident or by the treachery 
of his host, king Lycomedes ; for having ascended a 
lofty rock to enjoy a wider view of his surroundings, he 
either fell or was pushed off and dashed to pieces on the 
stones below. 

In a later age the Atlienian general Cimon discovered 
his remains and had them removed to Athens and 
deposited in a temple named for him the Theseum and 
erected in his honor. The festivities attending the 
nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta, the queen of the 
Amazons, are described in Shakespeare's Midsummer 
Night's Dream. "^ And a poem by Mrs. Heinans is 
founded on the ancient Greek tradition that the '^ Shade 
of Theseus" appeared to encourage his countrymen at 
the battle of Mafrathon. 

The recumbent Ariadne of the Vatican is said to be 
one of the finest pieces of sculpture in Italy. It repre- 
sents her asleep and abandoned by ungi-ateful Theseus. 
The festival which he instituted in honor of Minerva the 
patron goddess of Athens, forms the subject of the bas- 

♦ •' Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, 
And won tliy love doing thee injuries; 
But I will wed thee in another key, 
With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling." 



THESEUS. 97 

reliefs which once embellished the exterior of the Par- 
thenon. A considerable portion of these sculptures is 
now on exhibition in the British Museum among those 
known as the " Elgin Marbles." 

Theseus appears in the character of semi-historical per- 
sonage, the model of a just and moderate ruler, setting 
an example before his people of strict obedience to the 
laws, ever ready to espouse the cause of the weak 
against their oppressors, always a terror and a scourge to 
evil-doers, the king who invented and established so 
many wise and excellent regulations. 



CHAPTER XI. 

"Ye gods! what wonders has Ulysses wrought ! 
What fruits his conduct and his courage yield ! 
Great in the council, glorious in the field."— Pope. 

[Greece Continued.] 

;HREE FAMOUS EXPEDITIONS.— The voyage 
of the Argonauts, the Seven against Thebes, and the 
Siege of Troy are three most noted events which hap- 
pened before the daw^n of authentic Grecian history. 

The first of these, the Voyage of the Argonauts, 

was an expedition the object of which according to tra- 
dition was to recover tlie golden fleece. Athamas and 
Nephele, a king and queen of Thessalj^, liad two children, 
a boy and a girl. After a while the king having grown 
weary of his wife put her away and took another. 

The divorced queen fearing for the safety of her 
children if they should fall into the hands of a step- 
mother, took measui-es to remove them out of her reach. 
Mercury came to her aid and furnished her a winged 
ram with a fleece of pure gold. Nephele placed her two 
children on the back of the ram trusting that he would 
carry them away to a place of safety. 

The ram vaulted into the air and flew eastw^ard; but 
in crossing the strait between Europe and Asia the girl, 
whose name was Helle, fell off and was drowned in the 



VOYAGE OF THE ARGONAUTS. 99 

sea which thenceforth was called after her the Helle- 
spont — now the Dardanelles. The ram continued his 
flight till he came to the kingdom of Colchis on the 
eastern shore of the Black sea. 

After being safely landed the boy sacrificed the ram 
to Jupiter and gave the golden fleece to the king of the 
country, who nailed it to a tree in a consecrated grove 
and had it guarded by a sleepless dragon. 

Years afterwards a great expedition was fitted out 
under the command of Jason, a young Grecian prince, 
to go in quest of this treasure and if possible bring it 
back to Greece, to which country it was considered 
rightly to belong. The ship built for the occasion was 
capable of carrying fifty men, and was called Argo, 
■ from the name of the builder. Of course, compared 
with the largest modern ships, such a vessel as the Argo 
seems very small, but to the Greeks of that early date 
it seemed a gigantic affair, as hitherto they had only used 
small boats or canoes hollowed out from the trunks of 
trees. 

The report of its great size and the purpose for which 
it was being constructed, was circulated throughout 
Greece, and by the time it was completed all the most 
famous heroes then living had come to see the mighty 
vessel and join in the enterprise. Among the number 
were Hercules, Theseus, and Orpheus, the latter being 
the most renowned musician of that heroic age. When 
he played on the lyre, the music was so sweet that 
nothing could resist the charm of it. Not only men but 



100 VOYAGE OF THE ARGONAUTS. 

wild beasts were spell-bound, and even the rocks and 
trees gathered round and listened to his notes with a 
transport of delight. Pope, in his Ode on St. Cecilia's 
Day, thus speaks of Orpheus, whom he calls the 
Thracian : 

"So when the first bold vessel dares the seas, 
High on the stern the Thracian raised his strain; 
While Argo saw her kindred trees 
Descend from Pelion to the main, 
Transported demigods stood round, 
And men grew heroes at the sound." 

When all things were ready, the brave adventurers 
launched the vessel and departed on their perilous under- 
taking. At the entrance of the Black Sea there were 
two small rocky islands floating on the surface, and these 
were called Symplegades or Clashing Islands, because 
they often clashed together and ground to atoms any 
object that happened to be caught between them. 

Having arrived at this dangerous strait, the Argonauts 
let go a dove, which took her way safely between the 
rocks, only losing a few feathers from her tail. Then 
Jason and his men, watching the rebound of the rocks, 
seized the favorable moment, rowed with all their 
might, and passed through just in time to escape serious 
loss, as the islands instantly dashed together behind 
them and slightly grazed the stern of their vessel. 

A learned mythologist suggests that this may be a 
corrupt account of the story of Noah and the ark. The 
name Argo favors this idea, and the incident of the dove 
confirms it. 



VOYAGE OF THE ARGONAUTS. 101 

• 

At length, aftei* various adventures, Jason and his 
companions arrived at Colchis, and requested the king to 
surrender the golden fleece. The king consented to do 
so, on condition that Jason should yoke to the plow two 
fire-breathing bulls with brazen feet, and break up a 
piece of land and sow it with the teeth of the dragon 
which Cadmus had slain at Thebes. 

Jason agreed to the terms, and a day was set for try- 
ing the experiment. Meanwhile Jason won the heart of 
Medea, the king's daughter, who was a potent sorceress, 
and by her help he succeeded in accomplishing the task 
imposed. 

She furnished him a charm to protect him alike 
against fire and steel, and directed him how he could 
safely encounter the bulls and the weapons of the armed 
men who would spring up as a crop on the field where 
the dragon's teeth were sown. 

At the appointed time a great multitude assembled to 
witness the decisive trial. The bulls rushed in, breath- 
ing forth fire which burned up the grass as they passed 
along. Jason met them boldly and stroked them with 
fearless hand and quickly slipped the yoke upon them 
and, regardless of their flaming breath, proceeded to plow 
the ground and sow the teeth to the utter amazement of 
the Colchians and the extreme, though trembling delight 
of his friends. 

Soon the crop of warriors sprang up ; and they hardly 
reached the surface before they began to brandish their 
weapons and attack the hero, who valiantly defended 



102 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 

himself and kept his foes at bay with his sword and 
shield till his strength began to fail and then he seized a 
stone and cast it into the midst of his assailants. There- 
upon they turned their arms against one another and 
fought till the last of the dragon's brood was slain. 
Medea was elated by the victory and the Greeks embraced 
their hero with joy. 

It now remained to put to sleep the dragon that 
guarded the fleece. This Orpheus accomplished with his 
lyre while Jason took down the golden fleece, the long 
coveted prize, and carried it off. 

The historical meaning of this legend is doubtless 
that the Greeks held some intercourse with the Colchians 
and other tribes dwelling around the Black Sea. The 
mountain streams of Colchis were said to have washed 
down fine particles of gold and this was lodged upon 
fleeces which the natives dipped into the water for that 
purpose. The fire-breathing bulls are supposed to mean 
a savage band of Taurians who guarded the golden sands 
of their coast against the depredations of foreigners, and 
the sleepless dragon that watched the fieece was simply 
a man by the name of Draco who may have been the 
captain of the coast-guard. 

The Seven against Thebes.— Laius, the king of 
Thebes, was warned by an oracle not to beget children 
or he would die by the hand of his son. He neglected 
the prediction, and after his wife Jocasta had given 
birth to a son he sought to avoid the fulfillment of the 



THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 103 

prophecy. To this end the father immediately delivered 
the infant to his herdsman to expose on a mountain. 

But through the tender compassion of the servant, the 
babe instead of being left to perish from exposure fell 
into the hands of the wife of Polybus, king of Corinth, 
who being childlesss adopted it and brought it up as her 
own and named it OEdipus or Swollen-foot ; for the 
father before abandoning it had pierced its ankles and 
inserted a leathern thong through the wound. 

(Edipus grew to manhood, and had every reason to 
believe that he was the son and heir of king Polybus, 
till at a banquet he was stung by reproaches about his 
origin. He then besought his supposed mother to inform 
him of the truth ; but unable to get any satisfactory 
information from her, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi. 
By this he was advised not to return to his native land 
lest he should kill his father and commit incest with his 
mother. Whereupon (Edipus avoided Corinth and took ■ 
the road to Thebes, thinking thus to heed the counsel of 
the oracle. 

Now it happened that Laius, at this time, was on his 
way to Delphi to ascertain whether his son, whom he 
had exposed, had perished or not. 

And the father and son, total strangers to each other, 
met in a narrow pass of the road. Neither being willing 
to make way for the other to go forward, a contest 
ensued in which Lai'us and all his attendants, save one 
who fled, were slain. Thus the first part of the predic- 
tion was fulfilled. (Edipus then proceeded on his journey. 



104 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 

On the top of a hill near Thebes sat a monstrous 
Sphinx, having a lion's body, a woman's head, and an 
eagle's wings. She stopped all travellers who came that 
way, and proposed to them a riddle, with the condition 
that those who could solve it should be allowed to pass 
in safety, while those who failed should be devoured. 

The riddle was this: "What animal is that which 
goes on four feet in the morning, on two at noon, and on 
three at evening ? " 

Thus far all who tried it had failed to solve it. At 
length king Creon, his son having fallen a victim to the 
monster, issued a proclamation offering the throne to 
which he had succeeded on the death of his brother 
Laius, and the hand of Queen Jocasta to whoever should 
solve the riddle of the Sphinx. 

Notwithstanding the alarming reports of so many 
fatal failures, (Edipus undaunted came forwa]:d and 
answered the Sphinx that it was Man, who creeps in 
infancy, walks in manhood, and helps himself in old age 
with a cane as a third foot. 

Thereupon the Sphinx, mortified at the solution of her 
enigma, flung herself down from the rock and perished. 

Then (Edipus married Jocasta, little knowing that she 
was his mother and that he was thereby accomplishing 
the remainder of the oracle. Four children were the 
fruit of the incestuous marriage. 

Years afterwards, Thebes was afflicted with famine^ 
and pestilence; and the oracle being consulted, the 
double crime of (Edipus was discovered. 



THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES. 105 

Jocasta, crazed by the discovery, hung herself; and her 
wretclied son and husband seized* the golden clasps from 
her garment, and in his grief and despair tore out his 
eyes, and went forth an exile banished by his sons, but 
accompanied by his two daughters who faithfully adhered 
to him till lie ended his miserable life in the grove of 
the Furies. 

Then the curse returns and pursues the sons Eteocles 
and Polynices for banishing their poor, blind father. 
They agreed to share the kingdom and reign alternately 
each a year. Eteocles first ascended the throne, and at 
the end of the year refused to give up the kingdom to 
his brother according to agreement. A war w^as the 
result of such a shameless violation of contract. Polyni- 
ces repaired to Argos, and obtained the aid of King 
Adrastus to re-instate him in his rights. Five other 
heroes joined the expedition, thus forming the confeder« 
acy known under the name of the " Seven against 
Thebes." All the chiefs, with the exception of Adrastus, 
fell before Thebes ; whilst the brothers Polynices and 
Eteocles were slain in single combat by each other'a 
hands. 

Ten years later the sons of the allied leaders took up 
arms against Thebes to avenge their fathers' fate, hence 
called the war of the Epigoni or the Descendants. They 
were successful. Thebes was taken and razed to the 
ground. 

This period of legendary history — so full of human 
crime, of the vague and misleading oracles of the gods, 



106 THE SIEGE OF TROY. 

and of the swift and inevitable march of fate to overtake 
and punish the guilty— ^became a favorite theme of the 
tragic poets of Athens. And it is safe to say that this 
subject will never be devoid of interest to classical 
students. 

One of the Greek tragedies founded upon this period, 
the '^ CEdipus Tyrannus" of Sophocles, was recently 
represented on the stage at Harvard University. The 
different characters were so well studied and produced, 
the acting, the music, the costumes, the scenery were all 
so perfect, that the spectators witnessed the play with 
the greatest enjoyment and enthusiasm. It was pro. 
nounced a grand success by all who saw it. 

The Siege of Troy was the greatest event of the 
heroic age. According to the legendary account, Jupiter 
caused the war in order to reduce the inhabitants, because 
he saw that the earth was becoming too populous. 
By his direction, the goddess Discord flung a golden 
apple among the guests at a marriage banquet, with the 
inscription upon it " For the fairest." Juno, Venus and 
Minerva each claiming it, and Jupiter not being willing 
to decide so delicate a matter himself, he sent the god- 
desses to the shepherd Paris, the son of Priam, to have 
him make the decision. 

Accordingly they appeared before the aj)pointed 
judge, and each endeavored to bias his decision in her 
own favor. Minerva promised him success and glory 



THE SIEGE OF TROY. 107 

in war ; Juno, power and riches ; while Venus pledged 
liini the most beautiful of women forit,his wife. 

Paris aw^arded the golden prize to Venus, and thereby 
incurred the enmity of the other two divinities. There- 
upon he proceeded to Sparta to visit Menelaus, w^hose 
wife was regarded as the most beautiful woman then 
living. 

Slie had been sought as a bride by a host of admirers ; 
and before she gave her hand to any, they all agreed to 
defend her from all injury, and avenge her cause in case 
of necessity. She consented to marry Menelaus, king of 
Sparta. And tliey wxre living together in peace and 
hapi^iness when Paris became their guest. 

During the temporary absence of her husband, Paris 
persuaded Helen to elope with him, and the guilty pair 
embarked and sailed away to Troy, wlience arose the 
famous Trojan war. 

When Menelaus returned and learned that his Vife 
had been abducted, he at once called upon his brother 
chieftains of Greece to redeem their pledge and aid him 
in the recovery of his stolen wife. 

Most of the princes readily responded, and joined the 
expedition. But Ulysses, who was very happy in his 
home and family, had no inclination to join in such a 
troublesome affair. He therefore himg back, and pre- 
tended to be insane by yoking an ox and an ass to the 
plow and beginning to sow the field with salt. The 
messenger, to try him, placed his infant son before the 
plow ; whereupon the father turned the plow aside. 



108 THE SIKGE OF TROY. 

showing plainly that he understood what he was 
about, and after that he had no excuse to break his 
promise. 

Being now himself enlisted in the cause, he endeavored 
to bring in all the rest of the chiefs to join in the under- 
taking. When Achilles heard of the project, he fled to 
the court of King Lycomedes, and there concealed him- 
self in the dress of a maiden among the king's daughters. 
Ulysses, being informed of his flight, went to the palace 
in the disguise of a merchant with female ornaments and 
arms to sell. While the young ladies examined the orna. 
ments, Achilles handled the weapons and thus betrayed 
himself to the crafty Ulysses, who succeded in persuading 
him to join his countrymen in the war. 

Among the Grecian leaders w^ere also the sage Nestor, 
the brave Diomede, the giant Ajax, and King Agamem- 
non, who, being the brother of the injured Menelaus, 
was chosen Commander-in-chief. After two years prep- 
aration the army embarked in a vast fleet and sailed for 
the coast of Troy. 

The principal leaders on the side of the Trojans were 
Hector, son of King Priam, and ^neas ; and they and 
their comrades were such brave and valiant warriors that 
it was only after a contest of ten years that the city was 
taken and destroyed. 

And even then it was accomplished by a stratagem on 
the part of the Greeks. They constructed an immense 
wooden horse and filled it with armed men. The 
remaining Greeks then burned their tents and sailed 



THE SIEGE OF TROY. 109 

away to the island of Tenedos and hid themselves on 
shore to watch the result of their stratagem. 

Tlie Trojans imagined that their enemies had aban- 
doned the siege and gone home, and in consequence were 
much relieved from long distress. They threw open the 
gates and issued forth in crowds to visit and view the 
Grecian camp and the deserted shore. 

They gaze with wonder at the wooden horse whose 
stupendous bulk rises before them like a mountain. 
Some propose to drag it within the walls of the city ; 
while others more wisely urge either to cast it into the 
sea, or to burn it to ashes where it stands, or at least to lay 
it open and explore its hidden recesses. 

Laocoon, a son of Priam and priest of Apollo, hastens 
down from the citadel and w^arns the people to put no 
faith in the horse for he is sure that some treacherous 
design lurks beneath it. " I fear the Greeks " said he, 
'' even when they offer gifts." And thereupon he hurled 
his javelin against the sides of the monster causing the 
hollow^ cavern to ring and to send forth a groan. 

Meanwhile some shepherds bring to the king a young 
Greek captive named Sinon. The Trojans gather round 
from every quarter all eager to see their helpless foe to 
hear wiiat he would say and to vie with one another in 
heaping insults upon him. 

As he stood amid the gazing throng disturbed and 
unarmed, and cast his eyes around, "Alas!" he said, "what 
land, what seas can now receive me ? or what further 
trouble remains for poor me ? for whom there is no 



110 THE SIEGE OF TROY. 

shelter among the Greeks and with whose blood the 
incensed Trojans too, do now demand satisfaction." 

With these words having gained the attention and 
sympathy of his hearers he then proceeded more boldly 
to detail the false story of his sufferings. He pretended 
that he had been the object of nnjust suspicion ; that by 
his bold words in defence of truth and justice he had 
incurred the bitter hatred of the crafty Ulysses who 
henceforth persecuted him with new accusations and 
sought his ruin by spreading ambiguous surmises and 
making base insinuations about him among the common 
people ; that the oracle of Apollo had declared that in 
order to appease the anger of the gods and secure a safe 
return of the Greeks to their native land it would be 
neccessary to offer up a human sacrifice ; and that he had 
been destined by the Fates as the victim for the altar. 
By good fortune he had escaped, and lay concealed till 
his countrymen had embarked and gone ; and now he 
begged the Trojans to have pity upon tlie poor wretch 
who had no hope of ever again being blessed with the 
sight of his ancient country and of his sweet children 
and of his much beloved sire, whom, though innocent 
perhaps, his foes would put to death in revenge for his 
escape. 

The Trojans, unused to fraud, were moved to compass- 
ion at the recital of such grievous afflictions, and by the 
sight of the forlorn soul who complained that he had 
suffered sucli unworthy treatment. Priam ordered his 
bonds to be loosed, addressed liim as a friend, and bade 



THE SIEGE OF TROY. 



Ill 



liiin disclose the true reason why the horse had been 
built? who contrived it, and with what intention ? Was 
it designed to answer some religious purpose, or to be an 
engine of war, or what was the object of its construc- 
tion? 

Then Sinon, calling the gods to witness, affirmed tha^ 
the horse had been reared to take the place of the Pal" 
ladium, a stolen statue of Minerva, on the preservation 
of which depended the safety of Troy. He stated that 
its size had been made so enormous and its height so 
great that it might not be admitted into the gates or 
dragged into the city to afford protection to the inhabi- 
tants under their ancient religion. 

He warned them that if they should lay violent hands 
on this sacred image to injure or destroy it, then quick 
and signal ruin would overwhelm their kingdom. But 
that if, drawn in by their hands, it should mount into the 
€ity, then Asia would advance with a formidable war to 
the very walls of Pelops, and the Greeks would be over- 
whelmed with disaster. 

By such treachery and artifice false Sinon insnared the 
Trojans, and with much guile and many tears constrained 
them to believe his tale. And just at this time a fright- 
ful scene is presented which seems to confirm the words 
of the artful Greek. 

Two hideous serpents glide up from the shore and 
seize and crush to death Laocoon and his two sons. The 
Trojans are paralyzed with fright at the shocking sight ; 
and when they recover, they find that the serpents have 



112 THE SIEGE OF TROY. 

taken refuge in the Temple of Minerva, and at once they 
conclude that Laocoon had deservedly suffered for his 
crime in having liurled his profane spear against the 
sacred image. 

They all with one accord now decide to convey the 
statue to its proper seat within the city. And to this end 
they implore the aid of the goddess. Some hasten to 
made a breach in the walls, while others apply wheels 
under the feet and attach ropes to the neck of the fatal 
machine. ''Boys and unmarried virgins accompany it 
with sacred hymns, and are glad to touch the rope with 
their hands; " while the men, with strong arms and fran- 
tic zeal, urge on and plant the baneful monster in the 
very lieart of the citadel. Heedless of approaching doom, 
they even go so far in theii* rejoicing as to adorn the tem- 
ples of the gods throughout the city with festive boughs. 

Meanwhile the heavens change. Black night over- 
spreads the sky; and a deep sleep overtakes and falls 
upon the weary Trojans. 

And now in swift ships the Grecian host make haste 
to return from Tenedos ; and false Sinon steals forth 
under cover of the darkness and opens the horse to the 
Greeks imprisoned in its caverns. Ulysses, Menelaus 
and their companions come forth and assault the cit}^ bur- 
ied in sleep and wine. They beat down the sentinels 
and open the gates to their returning friends. 

Alas ! who can describe the havoc of that awful night ? 
Who in pity can weep bitter tears equal to the dire dis- 
aster which then fell upon that ancient city? 



THE SIEGE OF TROY. 113 

All the gods deserted their shrines and abandoned 
their altars to the enemy. Men seemed changed to wild 
beasts. They lost all terror of death and fought like 
hungry wolves. The bodies of the slain covered the 
streets, filled the houses and blocked the sacred thresh- 
holds of the temples. To render the destruction com- 
plete the Greeks set fire to the city and the beautiful 
palaces, the splendid temples and all the wealth and art 
and luxury of that ancient capital perished in the flames. 

Such is only a brief and imperfect sketch of one 
of the most famous events of antiquity. The stu- 
dent will find a much fuller account of it in the great 
epic poems of Homer and Yirgil ; and in reading it, he 
can hardly fail to be impressed with the fact that we 
too, as well as the ancients, are surrounded and controlled 
by the infinite power of the immortal God. 

The supreme Lord of lords exalts the humble and 
casts down the proud. Men build great cities; and 
when, in their race for riches, fame, and power, they 
forget God and, like Nebuchadnezzar, boast of what they 
have done^ by the might of their power and for the 
honor of their majesty, then God casts them down and 
destroys their great Babylon, and none can stay his 
almighty hand. 

In the fall of Troy, ^'Eneas is inclined to lay all the 
blame on the beautiful Helen, till Yenus, his divine 
mother, opens his eyes to behold the true facts of tlie 
case. 



114 THE SIEGE OF TROY. 

Not Helen, ''but the gods, the unrelenting gods, over- 
throw this powerful realm and level the towering tops of 
Troy with the ground." 

*'Here where you see scattered ruins, and stones torn 
from stones, and smoke in waves ascending with winged 
dust, Neptune shakes the walls and foundations loosened 
by his mighty trident, and overturns the whole city from 
its basis. Here Juno, extremely fierce, is posted in the 
front to guard the Scaean gate, and, girt with the sword, 
with furious summons calls from the ships her social 
band. Behold ! Tritonian Pallas hath now sat down on 
a lofty tower resplendent with a cloud and with the terri- 
ble Gorgon. The Father himself gives courage and suc- 
cessful strength to the Greeks ; himself incites the gods 
against the Trojan arms.',' 

In this passage and many others, the poet repiesents 
the heathen deities contending with mortals around ihe 
walls of Troy. 

One of the finest groups of statuary on exhibition is that 
of Laocoon and his sons in the embrace of the serpents. 
The original is in the Vatican at Rome, but very good 
casts and copies of it may be seen in the museums of 
Boston, Amherst, and elsewhere in our country. 

Helen, who, if we regard the war from a human stand- 
point, was the cause of so much slaughter, rejoined her 
first husband, Menelaus, after the downfall of the city^ 
and they were among the first to leave the hostile shores 
f or their native land. 



THE SIEGE OF TROY. 115 

Witliin the last decade, the German traveller Schlie- 
mann has made extensive excavations and many impor- 
tant and interesting discoveries on what was probably 
the site of this ancient city. Among other achievements, 
he claims to have laid bare the walls of Neptune and 
Apollo, Priam's palace and the Scsean gate. 



CHAPTER XII. 

" A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod, 
An honest man's the noblest work of God."— PorE. 

[Greece Continued.] 
Brief Sketches of Noted Men. 

[HE SEYEN SAGES.— Under this name, in the 
sixth century before Christ, certain men became 
famous. Their names are variously given ; but those 
most generally admitted to the honor are Bias, Chilo, 
Cleobulus, Periander, Pittacus, Solon, and Thales. These 
men were the authors of, many mottoes and short pithy 
sayings which exercised great influence upon the people 
of their time. In later days some specimens of their 
wisdom were used as inscriptions to adorn the Delphian 
temple ; such as : 

''I^Know thyself." 

" Know thy opportunity." 

" Nothing too much." 

'^ Suretyship is the jDrecursor of ruin." 

Bias, an Ionian, showed his wisdom by declaring that 
a man should temper his love for his friends by the 
reflection that they might some day become his enemies, 
and moderate his hatred of his enemies by tlie reflection 
that they might some day become his friends; that ^' a 



CLEOBULUS. 117 

man sliould be slow in making up his mind, but swift in 
executing his decisions." 

He thought " the most unfortunate of all men to ])e 
the man who knows not how to bear misfortune." 

And once when he overheard some notoriously wicked 
sailors oflFering up their prayers for safety when they 
were likely to be drowned or wrecked in a violent storm, 
he advised them rather "to be silent, lest the gods should 
discover that they were at sea." 

Chile, a Spartan, believed the three most difficult 
things in a man's life were : " To keep a secret, to for- 
give injuries, and to make a profitable use of leisure 
time." 

He engaged in public affairs, and became one of the 
chief officers of his native city. He 'travelled much 
abroad, and probably visited the capital of Croesus and 
conversed with the fabulist ^sop. 

His death at an advanced age was caused by excessive 
joy over the success of one of his sons in winning a prize 
at the Olympic games. He died while embracing the 
victor. 

Cleobulus, a despot of Lindus, in the island of 
Rhodes, claimed descent from Hercules, and was remark- 
able both for his strength and for his beauty of person. 
His favorite saying was, " Moderation is best.'' 
He also taught that " it was folly in a husband either 
to fondle or reprove his wife in company " ; and that " a 



lis rERIANDER. 

man should never leave his dwelling without considering 
well what he was about to do, or re-enter it without 
rellecting on what he had done." 



Periander^ a despot of Corinth, ruled with oppression 
and cruelty. Early in his reign he is said to have sent a 
messenger to the neighboring despot of Miletus to in- 
quire how he could best maintain his power. 

And his friend, without giving an answer in writing, 
led the messenger through, a field of standing corn, and 
as they went, kept asking the object of his mission, and 
at the same time took pains to cut off all the highest 
heads of corn that he could see. After passing through 
the field he dismissed the servant, bidding him to tell 
his master all that had occurred during the interview. 

Periander rightly interpreted the action, and pro- 
ceeded to put to death the most powerful nobles of the 
state. 

Whether true or not, the anecdote serves to indicate 
the common opinion that he ruled his people with a rod 
of iron ; and that, although classed among wise men, he 
was foolish enough to follow bad advice in adopting a 
bloody policy, though it may liave been the surest 
way of retaining his throne. 

He was a warm patron of art and literature, and wel- 
comed to his court the poet and the philosopher. But 
he would have been a much happier and better man if 
his wisdom had taught him how to govern his temper. 
In a fit of anger he is said to have killed his wife, and 



riTTACUS. 119 

tlms added another foul and ineffaceable blot to his 
already blackened character. 

Pittacus, a wise and virtuous ruler of Mytilene, is 
rightly entitled to a seat of honor among the so-called 
sages of Greece. In a war with the Athenians, he was 
challenged to single combat by their commander, a man 
of prodigious size and strength. Strabo writes that on 
this occasion " Pittacus came into the field armed with a 
casting-net, a trident, and a dagger." Watching his 
opportunity, he threw the net over the head of his 
antagonist, and by this means gained an easy victory. 

From this stratagem, the Eoman gladiators called 
Eetiarii borrowed their mode of fighting. 

In order to suppress drunkenness, Pittacus passed a law 
to inflict a double punishment upon offenders for any 
crimes committed in a state of intoxication. 

The following precepts and maxims are some of those 
which are attributed to him. 

'' The greatest blessing which a man can enjoy is the 
power of doing good." 

'' The wisest man is he wh6 foresees the approach of 
misfortune ; the bravest man , he who knows how to 
bear it." 

'' Victory should never be stained by blood." 

'' Pardon is often a more effectual check on crime than 
punishment." 

'^ Power discovers the man." 

" Never talk of your schemes before they are executed, 



120 SOLON. 

lest, if yon fail to accornplisli them, yon be exposed to 
the donble mortification of disappointment and ridicnle." 

" Whatever yon do, do it well." 

And his amiable disposition and his consideration for 
the rights and feelings of others led this sage to give the 
negative of Christ's golden rnle : 

"Do not that to yonr neighbor which yon wonld take 
ill from him." 

Solon, the Athenian Law-giver. For centnries before 
the time of Solon, Athens had snffered from anarchy 
and misrnle. The form of government had been repeat- 
edly changed. Monarchy had long been abolished, and 
after some confnsion one of the nobles had been elected 
for life to the office of archon or rnler, with supreme 
power. Then the term of office had been rednced to ten 
years and subsequently for the purpose of conferring the 
honor upon a greater number of the nobility, the Athe- 
nians adopted the expedient of annually electing nine 
archons, who were to manage the affairs of religion, 
direct all military movements, enact laws, administer 
justice, and generally superintend the government. 

The nobles excluded the common people from any 
share in the government. They claimed the sole right 
of presiding in the courts and pronouncing judgment, 
because they alone were acquainted with the traditionary 
and unrecorded statutes ; and in this way partiality was 
often shown, and much injustice done through arbitrary 
decisions. This led the common citizens to insist upon 



SOLON. 121 

the framing of written laws. The nobles for a long time 
refused to yield to the popular will, but at length when 
they saw that further, resistance was impossil)le5 they 
conceived a new plan of oppressing the commons. They 
commissioned one of their number, Draco, surnamed the 
Cruel, to frame a code of laws. These proved to be so 
severe that they were said to have been written in blood. 

Death was the penalty for all offences; ''for," said 
Draco, ''the smallest crime deserves death, and I can 
find no heavier punishment for the greatest." A des- 
perate struggle ensued between the haughty nobles and 
the discontented people. Party spirit raged with such 
virulence that the state was reduced to the verge of ruin. 

At this crisis, Solon, a warm friend of the people, 
came forward and proved himself to be not only a patriot 
but the father and savior of his country. He instituted 
a new and republican form of government for the state, 
vesting the principal authorities in the assemblies of the 
people. These assemblies were clothed with the power 
to enact, appoint judges and state officers, and choose the 
council of the four hundred. To the nobility he 
reserved the exclusive right to fill the office of archon 
and to preside in the high court of the Areopagus. At 
the same time, Solon greatly relieved the poorer citizens 
by freeing them from a portion of their crushing debts 
and restoring them to the free enjoyment of their mort- 
gaged estates. 

After completing these measures, Solon exacted a 
pledge from the Athenians that they would make no 



122 SOLON. 

changes in the laws for ten years. He then set forth on 
a long journey to visit Asia and Egypt, perhaps partly 
with a design to avoid by his absence any petitions to 
alter che framework of government which he liad estab- 
lished. 

At SrirdiSj the capital of Lydia, he was hospitably 
entertained by King Croesus, whose enormous wealth has 
made his name proverbial. After showing his treasures 
and displaying his glory, Croesus asked his visitor whom 
lie thought to be the happiest of men, supposing, of 
course, that Solon would name Croesus. 

The philosopher, however, mentioned a few persons 
who, after leading lives distinguished for patriotism and 
filial devotion, had met with a peaceful and becoming 
death. 

" And what do you think of me ? " asked Croesus. 

"Ah!" replied Solon, "call no man happy till he is dead.'' 

Curtius, in his history of Greece, pays the following 
high tribute to this sage Athenian law-giver : "An untir- 
ing love of knowledge filled Solon from his earliest 
youth up to the end of his life ; for even when at the 
point of death, he is said to have raised his weary head 
to take part in the conversations of his friends. This 
love of knowledge, as well as his domestic circumstances, 
early caused him to quit the narrow circle of home, and 
to explore the world. In the midst of his restless life of 
travel, all his thoughts and wishes remained devoted to 
his home. Whatever met his eye he looked upon with 
reference to Attic interests." 



THALES. 123 

Thales, of Miletus, is noted as being the founder of 
the Ionic school of philosophy. He taught that the pri- 
mary principle or element, from which all things in the 
world are formed, is water. He probably meant muddy 
or impure water, the same thing that other philosophers 
called Chaos. 

Thales traveled much in search of knowledge, and 
spent some time in Egypt, Crete and Phoenicia. He 
showed the Egyptians to their astonishment how to 
measure the height of their pyramids. It is evident that 
Thales possessed a love for mathematics,since he invented 
several propositions in geometry and was sufficiently 
acquainted with celestial movements to predict an eclipse. 
He divided the heavens into five zones, discovered the 
equinoctial and solstitial points, and calculated the 
length of the year to be 365 days. 

When he saw the action of the loadstone, he declared 
that all things were full of spirits or '^ demons." 

What would he have thought had he been permitted 
to behold the wonders of modern science and invention ? 
How amazed he would have been at the mighty motive 
power of steam, at the mysterious action of the telegraph 
and the telephone, at the startling revelations of the tel- 
escope and the microscope ! How blinded he would 
have been by Edison's electric light, and more firmly 
convinced than ever before that all things are full of 
spirits. 

After the death of Thales, the Ionic school was con- 
tinued by teachers who variously modified the theory of 



124 PYTHAGORAS. 

the founder. One believed that air was the primary 
form of all matter ; another held ihdit fire or heat was the 
original source of everything ; and another conceived a 
supreme mind or intelligence to have brought form and 
order out of the original chaos. 

The second school of Greek philosophy was called the 
Eleatic, from its birth-place, Elea, a Greek colony on the 
southwestern coast of Italy. 

Xenophanes founded this school, and taught his fol- 
lowers to believe the whole of nature to be God. He 
supported himself for some time at the court of King 
Hiero by reciting poetry which he had written to 
denounce and ridicule the descriptions of the gods given 
by Homer and Hesiod. 

His idea was "that God is one incorporeal, eternal 
being, and, like the universe, spherical in form ; that He 
is of the same nature with the universe, comprehending 
all things within himself ; is intelligent and pervades all 
things, but bears no resemblance to human nature, either 
in body or mind." 

Pythagoras founded the third school of Grecian phil- 
osophy, at which a great number of pupils were educat- 
ed. The school was at Crotona, a town on the south 
coast of Italy. Many incredible stories are related about 
Pythagoras. Fact and fiction are so closely mingled in 
the accounts of his life and work that have come down 
to us, that it is safest to receive all that is said of hira 



PYTHAGORAS. 125 

with considerable allowance. Pythagoras first bore the 
title of philosopher or lover of wisdom. 

•'In human life," said he, "amid the various charac- 
ters of men, there is a select number who, despising all 
other pursuits, assiduously apply themselves to the study 
of nature and the search after wisdom ; these are the per- 
sons whom I call philosophers." 

He resorted to many an artifice which has been 
repeated in all ages of the world to excite the curiosity 
and veneration of credulous people. For this purpose 
he was careful to preserve a grave and commanding 
aspect, and never to express in his countenance any 
emotion as grief, joy or anger. 

When he appeared in public he wore a long white 
robe, a flowing beard, and a golden crown ; and thus 
with his ever stately and dignified bearing, he palmed 
himself off upon the thoughtless multitude as a being of 
a superior order. 

He believed in transmigration of souls, and claimed to 
have a distinct remembrance of many states and condi- 
tions of life through which his soul had passed. 

In astronomy, many of his views were undoubtedly 
correct; but as he advanced no proof, they soon were 
mostly abandoned and forgotten. According to his the- 
ory, the sun is the centre of the solar system, and the 
planets revolve in circular orbits. The earth makes a 
daily revolution on its axis and a yearly journey around 
the sun. Yenus appears as both morning and evening 



126 PYTHAGORAS. 

star. He fancied that the planets were inhabited, and 
even tried to calculate the size of animals in the moon. 

Music seemed to be essential to his happiness. The 
hymns of Homer and Hesiod were favorites which he 
often sang to promote the tranquility of his mind. 

The musical chords are said to have been his discovery. 
One day while passing by a smith's forge where several 
workmen were successively striking an anvil with their 
hammers, he noticed that the sounds of their strokes were 
harmonious. Upon going into the shop, he perceived 
that the diversity of sounds was produced by the differ- 
ence in weight of the hammers. Thereupon he attached 
corresponding weights to suspended strings and found 
upon striking the strings that they rendered the same 
musical chords which the hammers ringing on the anvil 
had yielded. From this experiment he learned how to 
make a musical scale and stringed instruments. 

He asserted that the distances between the planets are 
proportional to the intervals in the musical scale, and 
that on this account the planets move in perfect harmony 
and make the " music of the spheres." The immortal 
gods listen with delight to the celestial concert, and the 
soul of Pythagoras was permitted to hear it; but the 
ears of ordinary mortals are too gross for such divine 
melody. 

The philosopher was also fond of mathematics, and 
discovered many propositions in geometry. In a right- 
angled triangle the square described on the hypothenuse 
is equal to the sum of the squares described on the other 



PYTHAGORAS. 127 

two sides^ is perhaps his greatest triumph in this science. 
Phitarch says that upon the invention of this truth, 
Pythagoras offered an ox, others, a hecatomb, to the 
gods. 

The examinations for entrance to the school were unique 
and curious. Pythagoras closely scanned the features 
of the candidate and noted his external appearance ; 
inquired how he behaved towards his parents and friends; 
observed his manner of laughing, conversing, and keep- 
ing silence ; watched to see what were his habits and 
passions, and who were his companions; and noticed 
how he passed his leisure time. From such observations 
as these he judged whether the applicant was capable of 
becoming a true philosopher. If admitted, the student 
was subjected to a long course of the most rigorous 
discipline. 

During the probationary period, the students were 
prohibited from seeing their master, or hearing his lec- 
tures except from behind a curtain. Strict silence was 
enjoined upon them. They were no more allowed to 
contradict or talk back than are their modern brothers 
when receiving curtain-lectures. They had no proof for 
many assertions, and could only rest upon the authority 
of their master. Hence they were wont to silence one 
another's doubts by an Ipse dixit^ " He said so." 

"The teacher said it, and therefore it must be true." 

When we read what the teacher said, we no longer 
wonder that he cared to hide his face behind a curtain. 
The following are specimens of his sayings and precepts • 



128 PYTHAGORAS. 

''Adore the sound of the whispering wind." ^ 

'' Stir not the fire with a sword." 

'' Turn aside from an edged tool." 

'' Pass, not over a balance." 

" Setting out * on a journey, turn not back, for the 
Furies will return with you." 

'' Breed nothing that has crooked talons." 

''Receive not a swallow into your house." 

" Look not in a mirror by the light of a candle." 

" Eat not the heart or brain." 

" Taste not that which has fallen from the tables." 

" Break not bread." 

" Sleep not at noon." 

" When it thunders, touch tlie earth." 

" Pluck not a crown." 

"Roast not that which has been boiled." 

" Sail not on the ground." 

" Plant melons in thy garden, but eat them not." 

"Abstain from beans." 

"Above all things, govern your tongue." 

" Engrave not the image of God in a ring." 

" Quit not your station without the command of your 
general." 

The Pythagoreans have always kept secret their inter- 
pretation of these teachings, and the reader is left to 
exercise his ingenuity, and conjecture as best he can 
their liidden meaning. The main object of Pythagoras 
was evidently to correct vice and commend virtue. 



SOCRATES. 129 

Socrates, the great and good philosopher of Athens, 
was pronounced by the Delphic Oracle " the wisest of 
men." This he explained by saying that ''he knew that 
he knew nothing, while other men, he found, did not 
even know that." Cicero calls him " the father of phi- 
losophy." His thoughts, as preserved in the writings of 
his enthusiastic admirers and disciples are high and 
noble. He aspired to something better than Grecian 
mythology and the gross speculations of the sophists. 

The most sublime truths dawned upon his mind. He 
taught the immortality of the soul and man's moral 
responsibility, and both by precept and example com- 
mended to all the steady practice of virtue as being essen- 
tial to happiness and true religion. He professed to be 
guided by a secret influence, a spirit or demon. He also 
taught the forgiveness of injuries and the unity of God. 
The home-life of the philosoper seems to have been 
rough and stormy. His wife Xanthippe was not noted 
for sweet temper and gentle speech, and she was not 
pleased to have her husband shirk the responsibility of 
supporting his family by neglecting the legitimate busi- 
ness of a stone-cutter, and devoting himself to endless 
and unprofitable talking in the streets and in the public 
resorts of the city. Indeed, on one occasion when she 
had lost all patience, she emphasized her scolding by a 
shower of dish-water. 

Whereat the dripping philosopher dryly remarked, " I 
thought after so much thunder we should have some 



rain." 



130 SOCRATES. 

Socrates cared little for dress or food. The same 
homely and scanty clothing satisfied him both in winter 
and summer. In the severity of a Thracian winter he 
walked barefoot upon the ice, while others clad in furs 
could scarcely endure the cold. He declined an invita- 
tion to live in luxury at the court of a Macedonian 
prince, saying, " At Athens meal is two-pence the meas- 
ure, and water may be had for nothing." 

Socrates used a peculiar mode of teaching. He gener- 
ally aimed to establish the truth by a series of cunningly 
contrived questions. He took extreme delight in expos- 
ing the fallacies of the sophists and in covering them 
with shame and confusion of face. At first he would 
put a question which seemed to have no bearing on 
the point at issue, and then by degrees he would lead 
them on, causing them to make one admission after 
another, till they were involved in absurdities, and con- 
victed by their own words. By this course he made 
many enemies. 

At length he was brought to trial and condemned to 
death on the charge of disbelief in the state religion, the 
introduction of new deities, and the corruption of the 
youth. After the verdict had been rendered against him, 
he probably could have mitigated the severity of the sen- 
tence by appealing for mercy to the judge, but he would 
not do this. He boldly declared that he deserved to be 
maintained at the public expense as a public benefactor. 

After condemnation, Socrates was kept in prison thirty 
days, which time he spent mainly in religious conversa- 



PLATO. 131 

tion with his friends. One of his disciples arranged for 
his escape by bribing the jailer; but Socrates firmly 
refused to save his life by a breach of the laws, which he 
had never violated. 

"How sad is it," said one, ^^that thou shouldst die 
innocent ! " 

'^ What, would you have me die guilty?" responded 
Socrates with a smile. 

At last, when the summons came, he drank the fatal 
cup of hemlock, and died with cheerfulness and compos- 
ure amid sorrowing and weeping friends. And his great 
soul adorned with the jewels of "temperance and justice 
and courage and nobility and truth," returned to God 
who gave it. 

Plato, one of the disciples of Socrates, founded the 
Academic School of Philosophy. It took its name from 
the fact that it was established in the grove of Acade- 
mus, a public garden, at Athens. After opening the 
school, Plato soon became very popular as a teacher. 
Crowds came to hear his lectures, and it is said that even 
ladies assumed male attire that they might mingle 
unnoticed with the hearers and enjoy the eloquence 
which flowed from the lips of the master. He presented 
his views in the form of dialogues, in which Socrates is 
the chief speaker, while other characters are introduced 
to sustain the minor parts of the conversation. 

Plato was fond of mathematics, and invented geomet- 
rical analysis. He considered the study of this science 



132 ARISTOTLE. 

SO important that he placed the following sign on his 
school : " Let no one enter here who is a stranger to 
geometry." 

Ancient critics could find little fault with his style or 
language. " If Jupiter should speak Greek, it would 
be Plato's." Many of his doctrines are in harmony with 
the Christian religion, and his writings so much resemble 
the Jewish Scriptures that he has been often called the 
'^ Attic Moses." 

Aristotle founded the Peripatetic school of philoso- 
phy, so called from his habit of walking up and down in 
the Lyceum while delivering his lectures. At the age of 
seventeen, he entered the Academy of Plato, and so dili- 
gently did he apply himself to his studies, that his mas- 
ter was wont to say that he needed the bit rather than 
the spur, and named him the Intellect of the school. 

On one occasion, Plato delivered a lecture to this 
ardent student alone, the rest having failed to attend, 
remarking as he began that, "so long as he had Aristotle 
for an audience, he had the better half of Athens." Like 
all other great men, Aristotle was industrious. He could 
never bear to be idle, and he grudged the time needed 
for rest. He used to sleep with a ball in liis hand in 
order that, when it fell to the floor by the relaxing of 
the muscles, the noise might awaken him, and he could 
then proceed with his work. 

He was chosen by Philip of Macedon as preceptor to 
his son Alexander, and he endeavored faithfully to dis- 



DEMOSTHENES. 133 

charge the duties of his office till his royal pupil ascended 
the throne. 

Aristotle was the first writer on rhetoric, mental sci- 
ence, natural history, and logic. 

Demosthenes, the greatest orator of antiquity, was a 
contemporary of Aristotle, both living in the fourth cen- 
tury before Christ. His success was mainly due to an 
unconquerable will. No natural advantages, no favor of 
circumstances, has placed upon his brow a crown of glory 
for all time. Little did the people of his day imagine 
that his name was to be written so high upon the roll of 
fame. 

His first appearance as a public speaker was a complete 
failure. A feeble and stammering voice, faulty pronun- 
ciation, short breath, awkward gestures, a habit of shrug- 
ging his shoulders and distorting his features, and a 
crude style of composition,all combined to make him the 
object of scorn and ridicule. 

But by an unflagging perseverance, he triumphed over 
all these infirmities, and placed himself " at the head of 
all mighty masters of speech." The characteristics of his 
oratory are clearness, precision, honesty, purity of pur- 
pose, compact reasoning power, and scathing invective. 
He took a firm stand against the ambitious plans of 
Philip, and this his grateful fellow-citizens, the Athe- 
nians, recognized in the lines which they caused to be 
inscribed on the brazen statue erected to his memory : 

'• Had you for Greece been strong as wise you were, 
The Macedonians had not conquered her." 



134 ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 

Alexander the Great, son of Philip, and pupil of 
Aristotle, was, as all know, the conqueror of the world. 
At an early age he devoted hiaiself diligently to study, 
and he became proficient in all the branches of human 
knowledge. He was especially fond of Homer's poems, 
committed them to memory, and endeavored to fashion 
his character after that of Achilles. 

At the same time, the physical education of the young 
prince was not neglected. His frame was made vigorous 
by gymnastic exercise. While very young, he gave proof 
of his manly courage and skill by taming a high-spirited 
horse, Bucephalus, which had mastered every other rider. 

He began to reign at the age of twenty, and in the 
short space of twelve years he finished his remarkable 
career, having made himself master of Greece, Egypt, 
and all Asia from the Hellespont to the Indus. 

He died at Babylon, and his body was deposited in a 
golden coffin, and carried by Ptolemy to Alexandria, and 
divine honors were paid to him not only in Egypt, but 
also in other countries. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

*' The corbells were carved grotesque and grim; 
And the pillars with clustered shafts so trim, 
With base and with capital flourished around, 
Seemed bundles of lances which garlands had bound."— Scott. 

[Greece Concluded.] 

A Glance at Greek Art and Artists, 

TPj^ arcliitecture, the Greeks achieved a wonderful 
•*• degree of perfection. They doubtless borrowed many 
ideas from Egypt, Assyria and Persia, as all the principal 
elements of Greek art can be traced in the ancient and 
monumental ruins of these countries. They especially 
excelled in architecture and sculpture. 'No modern 
genius has ever yet been able to surpass their master- 
pieces. 

There are three main styles or orders of Grecian archi- 
tecture, the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian, chiefly 
distinguished by the form of the column and its capital. 

Of these, the Doric is perhaps the oldest and the sim- 
plest, and was, as its name implies, the favorite style of 
the ancient Dorians. The column is usually found with- 
out a base, and its capital devoid of ornament. The 
famous Parthenon at Athens is the finest example of 
this style. Ferguson says of it in his History of Archi- 
tecture : " In its own class, it is undoubtedly the most 
beautiful building in the world. It is true that it has 



136 THE PARTHENON. 

neither the dimensions nor the wondrous expression of 
power and eternity inherent in Egyptian temples, nor has 
it the variety and poetry of the Gothic cathedral ; but 
for intellectual beauty, for perfection of proportion, for 
beauty of detail, and for the exquisite perception of the 
highest and most recondite principles of art ever applied 
to architecture, it stands utterly alone and unrivalled, the 
glory of Greece and the shame of the rest of the world.'^ 

It was built of Pentelic marble, on the highest ground 
of the Acropolis, during the splendid era of Pericles, and 
at an expense estimated at six thousand talents. There- 
were eight massive fluted pillars at each end, and seven- 
teen on each side. At either end, above the columns, 
there was a lofty pediment, occupied by about twenty 
figures of heroic size. The western group represented 
the contest of Minerva with Neptune for the soil of 
Athens ; while the corresponding one above the eastern 
front exhibited the birth of the Athenian goddess. 

The frieze below the cornice was also filled with 
figures sculptured in high relief, representing the actions 
of the goddess in aiding and protecting her favorite 
heroes. 

These sculptures, together with those of the pediments 
at the two fronts, are the works of Phidias and his schol- 
ars, and they afford a striking proof of the perfection to 
which this beautiful art was carried in ancient times. 

The temple contained the colossal statue of Minerva,, 
which was also the work of Phidias. It was composed 
of ivory and gold, and for this reason it was of almost 



THE PARTHENON. 137 

incalculable value. Indeed one writer states that forty- 
four talents of gold, equal in value to about $465,000, 
were used in adorning the statue, but, whatever the 
amount, it was soon stripped off and carried away as 
plunder by some of the many robbers with whom the 
country has been infested from immemorial time. 

The magnificent temple became in turn a Christian 
church and a Mohammedan mosque, and stood entire till 
the year 1687, when during a siege by the Venetians it 
was partly destroyed. The Turks had stored some pow- 
der in it, and this was unfortunately exploded by one of 
the enemy's bombs, w^hereby the roof was completely 
demolished and the whole building nearly reduced to 
ruins. 

In the early part of the present century, the earl of 
Elgin, by permission of the Porte, brought many of the 
sculptures from this temple to England. 

The government purchased his collection for £35,000, 
or $175,000, a little more than two-thirds the cost of 
excavation and transportation, and placed it on exhibition 
in the British Museum. These sculptures are known as 
the Elgin Marbles. 

The lovers of the fine arts in America possess many 
copies in the form of casts of these original masterpieces. 

This temple with its treasures of art offers to all the 
world undeniable evidence of the genius of the Greeks. 
^' The appearance of the Parthenon," says Lamartine, 
" testifies more loudly than history itself to the greatness 
of this people. Pericles will never die ! What a civili- 



138 TEMPLE OF DIANA. 

zation was that which found a great man to decree, an 
architect to conceive^ a sculptor to adorn, statuaries to 
execute, workmen to carve, and a people to pay for and 
maintain, such an edifice ! " 

The Ionic style of aTcJiitecture is distinguished by 
simple gracefulness and by much richer ornamentation 
than the Doric. The column is slender, and rests upon 
a base, while the capital is made beautiful w^ith spiral 
volutes. 

The great temple of Diana at Ephesus was the best 
example of this order. A recent writer- gives the fol- 
lowing description of this wonderful structure : " One 
building at Ephesus surpassed all the rest in magnifi- 
cence and in fame. This, was the temple of Artemis, or 
Diana, which glittered in brilliant beauty at the head of 
the harbor, and was reckoned by the ancients as one of 
the wonders of the world. The sun, it was said, saw 
nothing in his course more magnificent than Diana's 
temple. Its honor dated from remote antiquity. Leav- 
ing out of consideration the earliest temple, which was 
contemporaneous with the Athenian colony under Andro. 
clus, or even yet more ancient, we find the great edifice, 
which was anterior to the Macedonian period, begun and 
continued in the midst of the attention and admiration 
both of Greeks and Asiatics. The foundations were 
carefully laid, with immense sub-structures in the marshy 
ground. Architects of the liighest distinction were 

♦Conybeare and Howson's Jjijt and Epistles of the Apostle Paul. 



TEMPLE OF DIANA. 139 

employed. The quarries of Mount Prion supplied the 
marble. All the Greek cities of Asia contributed to the 
structure, and Croesus, the king of Lydia, himself lent 
his aid. The work thus begun before the Persian war 
was slowly continued even through the Peloponnesian 
war, and its dedication was celebrated by a poet contem- 
porary with Euripides. But the building which had 
been thus rising through the space of many years, was 
not destined to remain long in the beauty of its perfec- 
tion. The fanatic Herostratus set fire to it on the same 
night in which Alexander was born. This is one of the 
coincidences of history on which the ancient world was 
fond of dwelling, and it enables us with more distinctness 
to pursue the annals of " Diana of the Ephesians." The 
temple was rebuilt with new and more sumptuous mag- 
nificence. The ladies of Ephesus contributed their jew- 
elry to the expense of the restoration. The national pride 
in the sanctuary was so great that when Alexander 
offered the spoils of his Eastern campaign if he might 
inscribe his name on the building, the honor was declined. 
The Ephesians never ceased to embellish the shrine of 
their goddess, continually adding new decorations and 
subsidiary buildings, with statues and pictures by the 
most famous artists. This was the temple that kindled 
the enthusiasm of Paul's opponents (Acts xix.), and was 
still the rallying point of heathenism in the days of John 
and Polycarp. In the second century we read that it 
was united to the city by a long colonnade. But soon 
after it was plundered and laid waste by the Goths, who 



140 TEMPLE OF DIANA. 

came from beyond the Danube in the reign of Gallie- 
nns. It sunk entirely into decay in the age when Chris- 
tianity was overspreading the empire, and its remains are 
to be sought for in mediaeval buildings, in the columns 
of green jasper which support the dome of Sophia, or 
even in the naves of Italian cathedrals." 

Thus the temple of Diana saw all the changes of Asia 
Minor from Croesus to Constantino. Though nothing 
now remains on the spot to show us what or even where 
it was, there is enough in its written memorials to give 
us some notions of its appearance and splendor. 

The reader will bear in mind the characteristic style 
which was assumed by Greek architecture, and which 
has suggested many of the images of the New Testa- 
ment. It was quite different from the lofty and ascend- 
ing forms of those buildings which have since arisen in 
all parts of Christian Europe, and essentially consisted 
in horizontal entablatures resting on vertical columns. 

In another respect, also, the temples of the ancients 
may be contrasted with our churches and cathedrals. 
They were not roofed over for the reception of a large 
company of worshippers, but were in fact colonnades 
erected as subsidiary decorations around the cell which 
contained the idol, and were through a great part of their 
space open to the sky. 

The colonnades of the Ephesian Diana really consti- 
tuted an epoch in the history of art, for in them was 
first matured that graceful Ionic style, the feminine 
beauty of which was more suited to the genius of the 



CHORAGIC MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES. 141 

Asiatic Greek than the sterner and plainer Doric in 
which the Parthenon and Propylsea were built. 

The scale on which the temple was erected was mag- 
nificently extensive. It was four hundred and twenty- 
five feet in length, and two hundred and twenty in 
breadth, and the columns were sixty feet high. 

The number of columns was one hundred and twenty- 
seven, each of them the gift of a king ; and thirty-six of 
them were enriched with ornament and color. 

The folding doors were of cypress-wood,the part which 
was not open to the sky was roofed over with cedar, and 
the stair-case was formed of the wood of one single vine 
from the island of Cyprus. 

The value and fame of the temple were enhanced by 
its being the treasury in which a large portion of the 
wealth of Western Asia was stored up. It is probable 
that there was no religious building in the world in 
which was concentrated a greater amount of admiration, 
enthusiasm and superstition. 

The Corinthian style of architecture is more elaborate 
and beautiful than either of the other orders. The form 
of the capital was suggested to the mind of the cele- 
ebrated sculptor Callimachus by his seeing a basket cov- 
ered with a tile and overgrown by the leaves of an 
acanthus, a kind of thistle or thorn, on which it had acci- 
dentally been placed. 

A fine example of this order was the Choragic monu- 
ment of Lysicrates at Athens, formerly known as the 



142 PRAXITELES. 

Lantern of Demosthenes, which was built in the time of 
Alexander the Great. 

A copy of this occupies the summit of a tower at St. 
Cloud in France, and deserves mention as one of the rare 
specimens of the Corinthian style to be found in Greece. 

It was one of the many small houses which were used 
to hold and exhibit the tripods — prizes won by victors 
in the scenic games — which on festal occasions were 
employed to adorn one of the thoroughfares of Athens, 
named in consequence the Street of the Tripods. 

The Madeleine, or Church of St. Mary Magdalene, in 
Paris, is a beautiful example of the Corinthian style of 
architecture. 

Girard College, in Philadelphia, is another noted 
example in this style, and is by far the best specimen of 
Greek architecture in America. 

Socrates, the noted pliilosopher, practiced the art of 
sculpture, as already mentioned, and there was at the 
entrance to tlie Athenian Acropolis a group of beautiful 
Graces, clothed, which was executed by him. The form 
of these three Graces, who are draped, is preserved and 
represented in miniature on the reverse of a coin. In the 
earliest sculptures, both Venus and the Graces were rep- 
resented clothed. 

Praxiteles, who flourished about 364 B. C, has been 
praised as an original inventor and discoverer of a new 



PRAXITELES. 143 

style in sculpture. It is said that when he found that 
the highest eminence in the more masculine features of 
the art had already been attained by others, and when he 
perceived also that the taste of his age tended towards 
the beautiful to the neglect somewhat of the strong and 
powerful, he resolved to woo assiduously the milder and 
gentler graces of style. 

In this pursuit he succeeded admirably in uniting ele- 
gance and refinement with simplicity. He seized the 
happy " medium between the stern majesty which awes 
and the beauty which merely seduces ; between the 
external allurements of form and the colder but loftier 
charm of intellectuality. Over his compositions he has 
thrown an expression spiritual at once and sensual; a 
voluptuousness and modesty which touch the most insen- 
sible, yet startle not the most retiring." 

When the people of Cos applied to him for a statue of 
the goddess Yenus, he exhibited two, and offered them 
the choice of a nude or a clothed figure. They chose 
the latter, while the former was eagerly sought and 
bought by the Cnidians, and put on exhibition by them 
in a separate building, and so placed as to give the best 
possible view. This statue attained so great celebrity 
that strangers came from all parts of the known world 
for the sole purpose of seeing it ; and a certain king 
offered to cancel an enormous debt which the Cnidians 
owed him, if they would only transfer their Venus to 
him ; but as the statue was an important source of rev- 
enue, they firmly refused all overtures to part with it. 



144 PRAXITELES. 

No satisfactory trace of this celebrated piece of art 
remains. 

Probably the nearest approach to it is the Venus de 
Medici, and this, at best, can only be a feeble imitation 
of the original. 

There is a bronzed Roman coin stamped with a figure 
which is evidently a reduced copy of the Cnidian Yenus, 
as the legend on it, in Greek, " of the Cnidians," seems 
clearly to indicate. 

Another statue of Yenus in the Gardens of the Vati- 
can, though inferior in art, more nearly resembles the 
figure on the coin. 

Cupid bending his bow is a fine piece of art-work 
which the genius of Praxiteles originally conceived and 
executed, and well illustrates the style of this artist, who 
did not even hesitate to unveil to the admiring gaze of 
the world the charms of the goddess herself. 

Still another famous work of the same sculptor was 
the Lizard-killer, many copies of which, varying in fidel- 
ity and excellence, are to be seen in different galleries. 

In painting, Greece had a few great artists, of whom 
she was justly proud. The coloring of vases and statues 
seems to have been early practiced. At first, a single 
color only was used, and afterwards, as art advanced, 
real life was more closely imitated by the use of various 
colors. 

The Parthenon " presents remains of painting on 
some members of the cornice ; many colored devices 
remain on the upper part of the walls in the interior ; 



POLYGNOTUS. 145 

and the ground of the frieze, containing the reliefs of 
the Panathenaic procession, was blue." It is apparent 
from this and other ruins, that color and gilding were 
sometimes used in architecture ; yet the Greek artist, 
'whose special mission was to represent and realize the 
beautiful, did not regard nor employ paintings as a mere 
adjunct of architecture, but richly decorated wood with 
designs drawn from history or mythology. 

A writer informs us that "encaus^"ic painting in colors, 
boiled in wax and oil, was known " at an early date. 

A picture of a battle, painted about 700, B. C, is said 
to have been sold to the King' of Lydia for its weight in 
gold. 

But Polygnotus, who flourished about 460, B. C, is 
the earliest Athenian artist who exhibited much talent 
in his productions. 

The temples of Athens were adorned by his hand, and 
the temple of Delphi was embellished by two paintings: 

'-' The Taking of Troy " and 

" The Visit of Ulysses to the Under World." 

For the latter work the Council presented him a vote of 
thanks, and decreed that, whenever he travelled, he 
should be entertained at the public expense. 

One of his pictures, preserved at Rome, represented a 
man on a scaling-ladder, holding a target in his hand, 
and so evenly balanced that it was impossible to tell 
whether he was going up or down. 

Although he used only four unshaded colors on a 



146 PARRHASIUS AND ZEUXIS. 

colored ground, yet his works were very highly esteemed 
" for clear harmonious composition, for delicacy of draw- 
ing, for fullness of expression in the figures, and noble- 
ness in the forms." Indeed, it was remarked of one of 
his female portraits, that " The whole Trojan War lay 
in her eyelids." 

And in a contrast which Aristotle draws between him 
and two other artists, he asserts that the paintings of 
Polygnotus are more favorable than nature, while those 
of the second are more unfavorable, and those of the 
last exact representations. 

After the Peloponnesian war Parrhasius and Zeuxis 
rose to fame and became the most noted masters of the 
period. Both of these men were in the end inflated with 
the most inordinate vanity and self-conceit. 

Parrhasius assumed the title of the '' Elegant " - and 
also styled himself the " Prince of Painters " and openly 
declared that he had attained to perfection in the art of 
painting. He even carried his arrogance so far as to 
claim descent from Apollo and to dedicate his own por- 
trait in a temple as Mercury in order that he might be 
worshipped by the multitude. 

He courted attention and applause from the people 
and in this respect he much resembled Pythagoras. 
Nothing pleased him better than the excited admiration 
of the crowd. And to this end when he appeared in 
public he was accustomed to wear a purple robe and a 



PARRHASIUS AND ZEUXIS. 147 

golden garland, and to carry a cane wound round with 
tendrils of gold and to have his sandals bound on with 
golden straps. 

The portraits which this artist executed were generally 
excellent in outline and beautifully finished, though they 
lacked strength and boldness of conception where these 
qualities were essential and to be expected. There was 
something effeminate and voluptuous in his male figures 
which absorbed the idea of manly character and elastic 
vigor. 

A brother artist in criticising his Theseus remarked 
that he looked as though he had been fed on roses and 
not on beef. 

The story of his contest with Zeuxis has often been 
told. The latter painted a bunch of grapes so true to 
nature that the birds came and pecked at them. By thi& 
unequivocal testimony to the excellence of his work 
Zeuxis was greatly delighted and requested his rival to 
draw back the curtain which he supposed concealed the 
picture which was to compete with his own, anticipating 
a sure triumph. 

But now he unexpectedly found himself defeated, for 
what he took to be a curtain proved to be the picture it- 
self, whereupon he frankly owned that he had been 
beaten since he had only succeeded in deceiving the birds^ 
while his competitor by superior skill had entrapped the 
senses of an experienced artist. 

Another similar story is related of Zeuxis, wherein he i& 
said to have " painted a boy with a basket of grapes to 



148 • ^ APELLES. 

•which the birds as before resorted ; on which he ac- 
knowledged that the boy could not be well painted, 
since had the similitude been in both cases equal the birds 
would have been deterred from approaching." 

In the latter years of his life Zeuxis gave away his 
pictures to his friends because he considered that their 
value was so great that nobody was rich enough to buy 
them. 

When reproached for slowness in finishing his chief 
productions he replied that he was painting for eternity. 

The report that he died of laughing over the likeness 
of an old woman that he had painted is probably a fic- 
tion. 

But the palm in painting properly belongs to the 
artist Apelles^ who lived in the time of Alexander the 
Oreat. 

And it is a relief to turn to his character, so unlike 
those w^e have been considering, inasmuch as his modesty 
was only equalled by his genius. His suavity of manners 
won for him the friendship and patronage of Alexander. 
Indeed it is said that the monarch w^ould not allow^ his 
portrait to be painted by any other artist. 

On one occasion Alexander engaged him to paint a 
likeness of Campaspe, one of his concubines, ^ho was 
distinguished for her surpassing beautj^, and when he saw 
that the artist was captivated by her unrivalled charms 
he generously resi£:ned all claims to her and gave her as 
a present to his friend. 



APELLKS. 140 

According to Pliny, she served as tl^e prototype for 
the Venus Anadyomene, or Venus rising from the 
waves, which was universally regarded as the master- 
piece of this artist. It has been called " the personifica- 
tion of Female Grace, the wonder of art, the despair of 
artists, whose outline baffled every attempt at emenda- 
tion, while imitation shrunk from the purity, the force^ 
the brilliancy, the evanescent gradations of her tints." 

Another famous work of this artist, was a picture of 
Alexander grasping a thunderbolt, which was sold for 
twenty talents of gold (about $211,000), and hung up in 
the temple of Diana, at Ephesus. A portrait of the war 
horse, Bucephalus, did not at first satisfy his owner ; but 
he changed his mind in reference to it when a mare, 
accidentally passing, began to neigh at the sight of the 
pictured charger, and the delighted artist thought the 
animal a better judge of painting than the King of 
Macedon. 

" No day wichout a line " was the motto of Apelles. 

When he finished a piece, he exposed it to public 
view, and then concealed himself behind it, so as to hear 
the opinions of spectators. One day a shoemaker, who 
noticed that a correction had been made in the picture, 
owing to a previous criticism of his upon a shoe, now 
began to find fault with the leg also, when the artist 
suddenly appeared, and indignantly bade him to confine 
his critical remarks to the slipper. Hence arose the 
common saying, " Cobbler, stick to your last." 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Antony.— O mighty Csesar ! Dost thou lie so low ? 
Are all tliy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, 
Shrunk to this little measure ?— Shakespearb. 



Rome, and Some of Her Great Men. 

iffVN the south of the European continent, the middle 
^•^ peninsula of Italy drops down into the Mediterra- 
nean 'Sea. And any one, by a glance at the map, will 
notice the singular and amusing fact, that this country 
is shaped much like a human leg and foot. The moun- 
tain range running through it suggests the bones of 
strength, while the island of Sicily, at the toe, suggests 
that the person to whom the leg belongs may be playing 
a game of foot-ball. 

At any rate, that strong limb thrust down into the 
sea and disturbing its waters, and throbbing with volcanic 
life, is a fitting sjanbol of Rome, once the proud mistress 
of the world — Rome, not the intellectual head, but the 
active leg and foot, ready to march and carry her con- 
quests to the ends of the earth — Rome, not the flitting, 
baseless fabric of a dream, but the eternal city, ready to 
stand and withstand the shock of warring centuries, and 
able, wlien the clouds of battle are cleared away, still to 
show to the admiring world the imperishable monuments 
of her grandeur. 



ROME AND SOMK OF HER GREAT MEN. 151 

Italy extends from Mont Blanc, on the north, to the 
tip of the heel, about 700 miles ; and the distance from 
heel to toe is about 200 miles. The average width of 
the peninsula is about 100 miles, and the area is not 
much over 1,000,000 square miles, or double the size of 
New York and New Jersey combined. 

The mountains rise from 4,000 to 15,000 feet in 
height. The volcano Vesuvius, near Naples, is about 
4,000 feet high. That is about the same as the height 
of the Catskills in New York State. 

Italy is a land of beautiful scenery. No language can 
justly describe her lovely lakes and landscapes, and no 
artist can catch and reproduce on canvas the splendid 
and glowing beauty of her proverbially brilliant sunsets. 

Horace, with a poet's fondness, rightly calls his native 
land " the most smiling corner of the world." The mild 
climate, the fertile plains, the green pastures, the vine- 
yards, rich harvests, fine forests, and orchards of the 
orange and the olive, and the groves of mulberry, the 
lofty mountains and wild gorges, all combine to render 
Italy an attractive country for human habitation. 

And the people of this country have taken a leading 
part in the general history of the world. The three 
nations which have stood out foremost in the field of 
human achievements, are the Greeks, the Romans, and 
the Teutons. The Greeks furnished the seed, the Romans 
planted it, and for centuries the Teutons have been 
gathering the harvest. Each nation, in turn, having 
accomplished its divinely appointed work, has given 



152 JULIUS CJSSAR. 

place to its successor. Of these, the Romans occupy the 
central position in time and place. They alone founded 
a universal Empire in which all earlier history was 
absorbed, and out of which all later history has grown. 

The Roman Empire was formed by gradually bringing 
under its sway all the countries round about the Med*^ 
iterranean Sea, alike in Europe, Africa and Asia. And 
the man who undoubtedly had most to do with founding 
the Empire was 

Julius Caesar. 

He was born in the year 100 B. C. From his earliest 
boyhood he discovered remarkable talents, and in after 
years he became the most distinguished person of his 
age. Miiller gives the following condensed account of his 
character and career : " We are now contemplating that 
man who, within the short space of fourteen years, sub- 
dued Gaul, thickly inhabited by warlike nations ; twice 
conquered Spain ; entered Germany and Britain ; 
marched through Italy at the head of a victorious army ; 
destroyed the power of Pompey the Great; reduced 
Egypt to obedience ; saw and defeated Pharnaces ; over- 
powered in Africa the name of Cato and the armies of 
Juba ; fought fifty battles in which 1,192,000 men fell ;. 
was the greatest orator in the world next to Cicero ; set 
a pattern to all historians which has never been excelled ; 
wrote learnedly on the science of grammar and augury,, 
and, falling by a premature death, left memorials of his 
great plans for the extension of the Empire and the legis- 



JULIUS CvESAK. 153 

lation of the world. So true it is that it is not time that 
is wanting to man, but resohition to turn it to the best 
advantage." 

"According to Pliny, he was able to read, write, hear 
and dictate at one and the same time from four to seven 
different letters." "Besides being a general, statesman, 
jurist, orator, and historian, he was also a poet, a mathe- 
matician, an astronomer and an architect." He w^as 
" equally fitted to excel in everything." 

Shakespeare calls him " The foremost man of the 
world." And being such, he aspired to the highest 
position and authority among his people. He once 
remarked while passing through a small Alpine town 
that he would rather be the first man in that village than 
the second man in Rome. 

He was the idol of his army, and when on the eve of 
battle no more stirring and impressive words could 
be spoken to the troops than: " Soldiers, imagine that 
Caesar beholds you." He would achieve the greatest 
victories and announce them to the Eoman Senate 
with modesty and brevity. His famous campaign against 
Pharnaces he reported in three words: " Yeni, vidi, vici," 
" 1 came, I saw, I conquered." 

In the year M B. C. he was assassinated in the Senate- 
chamber and he fell covered with wounds at the foot of 
Pompey's Statue. Two of the principal instigators in 
forming the conspiracy and perpetrating the foul deed 
were Cassius and Brutus. The motives which prompted 
Cassius and most of the others to stain their hands with 



154 JULIUS c.^:sAR. 

such a crime seem to have been mainly envy and jeal- 
ousy of the rising greatness of Csesar. 

Shakespeare draws the following pen-portrait of Cas- 
sius, the base, sneaking, plotting, hypocritical scoundrel. 
Csesar thus confidentially frees his mind to his friend 
Antony : 

"Let me have men about me that are fat; 

Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights: 

Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look; 

He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. 

Would he were fatter:— But I fear him not: 

Yet if my name were liable to fear 

I do not know the man I should avoid 

So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much; 

He is a great observer, and he looks 

Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays 

As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music: 

Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort, 

As if he mocked himself, and scorned his spirit 

That could be moved to smile at any thing. 

Such men as he be never at heart's ease, 

Whiles they behold a man greater than themselves; 

And therefore are they very dangerous." 

The same poet has the following lines on the character 
of Brutus, who took his own life after the disastrous bat- 
tle of Philippi : 

"This was the noblest Roman of them all: 

All the conspirators, save only he. 

Did. that they did in envy of great Caesar; 

He, only, in a general honest thought, 

And common. good to all made one of them. 

His life was gentle ; and the elements 

So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up 

And say to all the world. This was a ma?i ,'" 

But let US leave Caesar, who lias been styled/" The 



MARCUS TULLius ciop:ro. 155 

greatest man who ever lived in the tide of times/- and 
briefly consider the career of his contemporary, 

Marcus Tullius Cicero, 

This most distinguished Eoman orator was born in the 
province of Latinm, near Arpinum, six years before the 
birth of Julius Caesar. And his tragic death occurred 
about a year after Caesar's fall. 

Plutarch derives tlie name of Cicero from cicer^ a vetch, 
and says that he was so called because " he had a flat 
excrescence on the top of his nose in resemblance of a 
vetch." Pliny makes the more probable suggestion that 
the name originated in the remarkable success of the 
first person who bore it, in raising vetches. Be that as 
it may, the Cicero of whom we are writing could never 
be persuaded to lay aside or change the name. If it was 
a shame to have such a name he gloried in his shame, and 
when he became quaestor in Sicily he consecrated in one 
of the temples a silver offering, inscribed with his first 
names Marcus Tullius followed by the engraving of a 
vetch to represent the Cicero. Such are some of the 
stories, whether false or true, which are told about his 
name. 

When he was old enough to attend school, he was 
placed under the instruction of the most accomplished 
and proficient poets, lawyers and orators of the period. 
And it is said to his praise that " he had both the capac- 
ity and inclination to learn all the arts." There was no 
branch of science which he neglected or despised. 



156 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 

Poetry was a favorite study, and there was one period 
in his life when he was regarded as the best poet as well 
as the greatest orator in Rome. 

Oratory and arms were the avenues to distinction in 
his days, and having no desire to lead the life and fight 
the battles of a soldier, Cicero applied himself to oratory 
with all diligence and zeal. The speeches of different 
orators and their styles of delivery were carefully stud- 
ied. His first efforts in public speaking were defective 
in lively action and yet by the aid of his teachers he soon 
gained the palm of eloquence over all his rivals. 

Some idea of his personal appearance may be formed 
from the following description : "Among the crowd who 
listened to the orators in the Forum as they thundered 
from the Rostra, stood a tall,thin youth, with outstretched 
neck and eager eyes, gazing with rapt attention on the 
speakers and learning from them the art how to sway by 
the charm of eloquence the fierce democracy of Rome.'^ 
— Forsytes Life of Cicero. 

At an early age he entered upon his brilliant career of 
public advancement, and having held in succession the 
offices of qusestor, aedile, and praetor, he finally reached 
the goal of political ambition in being elected to the con- 
sulship. And in every position which he occupied he 
always aimed to discharge his duties with integrity and 
fidelity, by which course he generally gained the good- 
will of the most worthy people. The dishonest scoun- 
drels of course hated him. 

The conspiracy of Catiline happened while Cicero 



MARCUS TCTLLIUS CICERO. 167 

was Consul, and it was in the exposure and suppression 
of this incredible league of crime and wickedness that 
the eloquent orator won his greatest victory and received 
the title Father of Ms Country in recognition of his ser- 
vices. 

Yet he was blamed for the summary punishment, with- 
out trial of some of the conspirators, and this action on 
his part eventually proved his ruin. Shortly afterwards 
a bill was proposed that '' whoever had put to death a 
Roman citizen uncondemned in due form of trial should 
be interdicted from fire and water ; " and as this bill was 
a blow aimed directly at Cicero he retired into exile in 
the deepest despondency and grief. 

Through the untiring efforts of friends he was recalled 
after several months of banishment. He returned to 
Eome in time to witness the struggle for supremacy 
between Csesar and Pompey. After some mental vacil- 
lation he took sides with the latter. When Pompey and 
the senatorial party were finally crushed in the campaign 
of Pharsalia, Cicero submitted with seeming good- will to 
the dictatorship of Caesar : but his letters clearly show 
that he was disappointed and they also betray a weak and 
peevish disposition. 

This, however, was the period of his greatest literary 
activity. He makes books, as many an author since has 
-done, to keep his mind from dwelling on the miseries of 
his political failure and defeat. 

Some think that Cicero saw the murder of Caesar, at 
any rate he applauded his assassination and joined the con- 



168 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 

spirators. He denounced Antony with exceeding bitter- 
ness and violence in the famous orations called after those 
of Demosthenes the Philippics — an act for which he 
soon paid the forfeit of his life. 

When Antony rose to power he had Cicero's name 
placed on the proscribed list ; and soon afterwards a band 
of soldiers found and dispatched him near his Formian 
Villa. They cut off his hands and head and carried them 
to Antony, who caused them to be nailed to the Eostra 
in mockery of the triumphs of their owner's eloquence* 
Thus perished the great orator Cicero. Without ques- 
tion he possessed many shining traits of character, such as 
virtue and purity and temperance. As a friend he was 
kind and obliging, as a father he was gentle, sympathiz- 
ing and affectionate, and as a citizen he was honest and 
patriotic. That he had faults, no one can justly deny. 
His vanity was excessive. It crops out everywhere in his 
orations. He thought he well deserved divine honor. 
He coveted popular applause. It possessed a charm for 
him beyond all else. Consequently when adversitj'' over- 
took him he was utterly forlorn and wretched. 

Cicero was a voluminous writer, his works embracing 
nearly every branch of literature. More than eight hun- 
dred letters from his pen are extant, and about fifty 
orations remain entire, besides numerous treatises and 
essays on a great variety of subjects. 

And in all these writings we behold and admire con- 
summate grace and beauty of diction. He never lacks 
words by which to express liis tliouglit. They seem to 



AUGUSTUS CuESAR. 159 

pour forth without eflfort from an inexhaustible fountain. 
And whatever else can be said about Cicero, he can 
never deservedly be called dull and stupid. He was 
witty and imaginative. Indeed, according to Niebuhr, 
" The predominent and most brilliant faculty of his mind 
was his wit." 

Augustus Caesar, a great-nephew whom Julius Caesar 
had adopted as his son, was the first Roman Emperor. 
He received the title of Augustus in the year 27 B. C, 
which marked the dignity of his rank and person, and by 
degrees he gained supreme control of civil and religious 
matters, and exercised his jDOwer with moderation. He 
was also called '^The Father of his Country." The 
title of Dictator had been rendered odious by Sylla and 
Csesar, and therefore Augustus wisely and firmly de- 
clined to assume it. 

During his reign many wars were successfully prose- 
cuted in different parts of the Empire. A small district 
of Spain, and the lands between the Alps and the 
Danube were added to his dominion. And the Parthians 
were obliged to give up Armenia and restore the eagles 
taken from Crassus and Anton3\ 

At length peace was established throughout the Em- 
pire, and the temple of Janus was closed for the third 
time since the foundation of Rome. The universal repose 
lasted nearly twenty years, and then it was broken by the 
defeat of Yarns in a battle with the G ermans beyond the 
Rhine. The German hero Arminius, with his army, 



160 AUGUSTUS CiESAR. 

destroyed three Roman legions, and thus stopped all fear 
of Germany becoming a Roman province. Augustus 
was much depressed by the report of this misfortune. 
He mourned over the loss of his men with deepest 
sorrow, letting his beard and hair grow long, and often 
crying out, " Oh, Yarns, give me back my legions ! " 

During the term of peace above referred to, Augustus 
faithfully devoted himself to improving his empire. To 
this end he issued decrees to reform abuses in the govern- 
ment, to elevate and educate the people, to subject the 
army to discipline, to promote marriage, to suppress 
luxury, and, in fine, to subserve all the best interests of 
the state. He also travelled extensively in neighboring 
countries, to gather knowledge for the benefit of his 
subjects. And they in turn erected altars to him, and by 
a decree of the Senate, named the month of August 
after him, as July had been called after his predecessor. 

In height, Augustus was below the medium, but 
well proportioned. And in reference to his appearance, 
it is said that he had light brown hair, inclined to curl, 
and bright and lively eyes, while the general expression 
of his countenance indicated a calm and gentle disposi- 
tion. 

Yet at times there must nave been something awe- 
inspiring or terrifying in his presence. On one occasion 
he encouraged a trembling petitioner by saying, " Friend, 
you appear as if you were approaching an elephant rather 
than a man. Be bolder." 

He was a generous patron of learning, and scholars 



VIRGIL. 161 

were welcomed and honored at his court, though his own 
literary attainments were meagre. It was his prudent 
habit to carefully write out his speeches, and then, hav 
ing read thern to his wife for her advice and criticism, 
he would commit them to memory before he delivered 
them to the public. 

The reign of Augustus was the golden age of litera- 
ture. In his time flourished the poets Virgil, Horace, 
and Ovid, the historian Livy, and many other writers. 
And this was also the period when Rome was enriched 
and adorned with many splendid buildings. It is truly 
said of Augustus that " he found Rome of brick and left 
it of marble." 

But the chief glory and distinction of his age was little 
known or thought of in the brilliant circles of his capital. 
Towards the end of his reign, Christ was born at Bethle- 
hem, in Judea. And in His person a greater one than 
Augustus had come to set up a spiritual kingdom des- 
tined " to outlast the glories of imperial Rome; " come 
to proclaim peace on earth, good will to men ; come to 
publish and exemplify in all His conduct and manner of 
life, the law of love and brotherly kindness ; come to 
unlock and disclose the mysteries of the future world, 
and to answer questions which had hitherto for centuries 
puzzled and baffled the wisdom of the sages. Hence the 
most important event which occurred during the reign of 
Augustus was the birth of the Saviour. 

Virgil, in one of his Eclogues, entitled ^^PoUio," and 



162 VIRGIL. 

dated 40 B. C, predicts the advent of a wondrous 
Child whose birth would be the dawn of a golden agje of 
peace and happiness. Now, it may be that Yirgil had 
heard of the Hebrew prophecies, since, at the time he 
wrote, Palestine w^as a part of the great Eoman Empire^ 
and he may have had his mind's eye fixed upon the Mes- 
siah when he composed the poem. The following is a 
passage from a poetical version of this poem : 

EXTRACT FROM THE POLLIO. 

•* Comes the Last Age of which the Sibyl sung— 

A new-born cycle of the rolling years; 

Justice returns to earth, the rule returns 

Of good King Saturn ; lo ! from the high heavens 

Comes a new seed of men. Lucina chaste, 

Speed the fair infant's birth, with whom shall end 

Our age of iron, and the golden prime 

Of earth return ; thine own Apollo's reign 

In him begins anew. This glorious age 

Inaugurates, Pollio, with thee; 

Thy consulship shall date the happy months; 

Under thine auspices the Child shall purge 

Our guilt-stains out, and free the land from dread. 

He with the gods and heroes like the gods 

Shall hold familiar converge, and shall rule 

With his great father's spirit the peaceful world. 

For thee, O Child ! the earth untilled shall pour 

Her early gifts, the winding ivy's wreath, 

Smiling acanthus, aud all flowers that blow. 

The ground beneath shall cradle thee in blooms, 

The venomed snake shall die, the poisonous herb 

Perish from out thy path." 

— W. L. Collins. 

Besides the Eclogues, or pastoral poems, Virgil is the 
author of the Georgics and the ^neid. The Georgics i& 
a poetical work on liusbandry. It directs the farmer 
how to plow, and sow, and reap ; it teaches how to ren- 



VIRGIL. 165 

der the land fertile, and explains the signs of the weather. 
And much minute advice is given about the proper care 
and cultivation of the vineyard, the raising of cattle^ 
and the management of bees. In this poem Virgil singa 
the praises of Italy, his native land, in a glowing 
eulogy. 

" Yet golden corn each laughing valley fills, 
The vintage reddens on a thousand hills, 
Luxuriant olives spread from shore to shore, 
And flocks unnumbered range the pastures o'er. 
'' Here Spring perpetual leads the laughing hours, 
And Winter wears a wreath of summer flowers ; 
The o'erloaded branch twice fills with fruits the year, 
And twice the teeming flocks their offspring rear. 
" All hail, Saturnian earth! hail, loved of fame. 
Land, rich in fruits, and men of mighty name! " 

The Georgics is regarded as the most finished and 
original of YirgiPs productions. He spent seven years 
in composing it, and then, after finishing it, he devoted 
the rest of his life, or eleven years, to writing the JEneid 
in fulfillment of a promise made to the Emperor that 
" he would wed Caesar's glories to an epic strain." The 
^neid, like the Odyssey, is a sequel to Homer's Iliad, in 
which the origin of Eome is beautifully described, and 
the genealogy of Augustus is traced back to " the pious- 
^neas," the greatest hero who survived the fall of 
ancient Troy. 

In a celebrated passage the poet represents ^neas as 
visiting the lower world, where he meets his father'^ 
ghost, and learns from his lips the future of his race^ 
while he beholds with excited wonder the pale and shad- 



164 VIRGIL. 

owy forms of men who are destined to shed glory on the 
Roman name. Among the spirit-throng he sees " Augus- 
tus Caesar, god by birth," and the great Marcellus, " the 
Sword of Rome," who fought with Hannibal, and fell 
in the second Punic War. And there also, by the side 
of the distinguished Roman commander, he espies 

*' A youth full-armed, by none excelled 
In beauty's manly grace." 

This splendid youth is introduced as " our own Mar- 
-cellus," the Emperor's nephew and Octavia's son, a 
prince of bright promise, whose sudden and untimely 
death had stricken his friends with sorrow, and filled his 
mother's heart with inconsolable grief. 

The eulogy upon this young man is one of the most 
touching tributes to be found in any language ; and 
when, at the request of Augustus, Yirgil recited the 
affecting passage before the royal family, the bereaved 
mother is said to have fainted quite away at the exceed- 
ing pathos of the lines. Virgil, no doubt, recited the 
verses with wonderful sweetness and propriety, as he is 
«aid to have received from the heart-broken parent the 
munificent reward of 10,000 sesterces, or about $400 for 
€ach verse, amounting nearly to $8,000 for the passage. 
The following is a version of this famous encomium 
upon 

MARCELLUS. 

•• Seek not to know (the ghost replied with tears) 

The sorrows of thy sons in future years, 

This youth (the blissful vision of a day} 

Shall just be shown on earth, then snatched away. 



VIRGIL. 105» 

The gods too high had raised the Koman stale, 

Were but their gifts as permanent as great. 

What groans of men shall fill the Martian field! 

How fierce a blaze his flaming pile shall yield! 

What funeral pomp shall floating Tiber see, 

When, rising from his bed, he views the sad solemnity! 

No youth shall equal hopes of glory give. 

No youth afford so great a cause to grieve. 

The Trojan honor, and the Roman boast. 

Admired when living, and adored when lost ! 

Mirror of ancient faith in early youth ! 

Undaunted worth, inviolable truth! 

No foe, unpunished in the fighting field, 

Shall dare thee, foot to foot, with sword and shield ! 

Much less in arms oppose thy matchless force, 

When thy sharp spurs shall urge thy foaming horse. 

Ah! couldst thou break through Fate's severe decree, 

A new Marcellus shall arise in thee ! 

Full canisters of fragrant lilies bring, 

Mixed with the purple roses of the spring: 

Let me with funeral flowers his body strow ; 

This gift which parents to their children owe, 

This unavailing gift, at least I may bestow! " 

—Dryden. 

The -^neid abounds in beautiful thoughts, though in 
originality it is inferior to Homer's great Epic. Yirgil's- 
house at Kome stood on the Esquiline Hill, near the 
gardens of his friend Maecenas. It was comfortably 
furnished, and had an excellent library. Yet it is not 
strange that the poet, with his modest and retiring dispo- 
sition, preferred the peace and quiet of a country home 
to the noise and confusion of a great capital. 

Besides, his talents had gained him such popularity 
that whenever he appeared in public he was the object 
of general attention. On one occasion, " when some of 
liis verses were recited in the theatre, the whole audience 
rose to salute Virgil, who was present, with the same 



166 VIRGIL. 

respect which they would have paid to the Emperor.'^ 
During the latter years of his life, the poet resided at 
Naples, or near there, at a delightful villa which he 
owned. ^ This was his favorite retreat, as he could here 
find shelter from public observation. 

He died at the age of fifty, and just before his death 
he called for the JEneid to burn it, because he regarded 
it as an imperfect poem. Augustus, however, interposed 
iind saved the work from the flames, to which the 
modesty of its author had consigned it. Yirgil was 
buried at Naples in a simple vault, long since overgrown 
with ivy and wild myrtle, and marked by a marble slab 
set in the rock opposite. The Latin inscription upon it 
has been thus rendered : 

" I suns: flocks, tillage, heroes ; Mantua gave 
Me life; Brundisium, death ; Naples, a grave." 

The poet bequeathed his fortune of $400,000 to his 
brother, Augustus, Maecenas and other friends. Thus 
passed away a noble and virtuous man, eminent for 
purity of character, integrity, modesty, unselfishness, 
and filial piety. 



CHAPTER XY. 
A Few Other Distinguished Romans. 

" Who, you all know, are honorable men."— Shakespeare. 

[IBER1U8, THE SECOND ROMAN EMPEROR. 

On the death of Augustus, Tiberius • succeeded, 
without opposition, to the empire, and soon afterwards 
he began the practice of a wicked and sanguinary policy, 
which justly caused him to be thoroughly hated and 
feared. In order to avoid punishment for his crimes, he 
watched, circumvented, imprisoned and put to death, 
as far as possible, all the noble men of the state 
who ^vould be likely to call him to account for 
his misdeeds. Persons were tried on a charge of 
high treason, grounded not upon actions but upon 
looks, words, and gestures, all of which were magni- 
fied into grievous offences against the majesty of the 
Emperor. 

A sj^stem of espionage was organized, which destroyed 
social confidence and domestic security, inasmuch as a 
man's enemies were quite likely to be found among his 
own servants, or among the guests who were accustomed 
to sit at his table and enjoy his free bounty. The prin- 
ciple that the accused is to be regarded as innocent until 
he is proven guilty, had no place in the trials conducted 



168 TIBERIUS. 

under tlie direction of Tiberius. On the contrary, those 
who were accused by the spies of the government every- 
where present, were at once suspected and presumed to 
be guilty ; and corrupt judges were easily found to 
condemn them. Therefore confiscations and executions 
were every-day occurrences. 

The rights of the people were trampled upon or dis- 
regarded. Tiberius chose the magistrates himself, abol- 
ished the assemblies, and thus swept away the last trace 
of popular liberty. Both in public and private life he 
was a monster of cruelt3^ With sleepless and devouring 
jealousy he sapped the strength of the state by shedding 
the best blood of Rome, and with implacable malice 
persecuted his own kindred. 

At last he himself fell a victim to the rage and revenge 
of his enemies. He was murdered A. D. 31, by Caius, 
who, he had predicted, "would prove a serpent to swallow 
Rome, and a Phaethon to set the world on fire." Tibe- 
rius had some literary ability, and was said to be a crafty 
speaker. He was addicted to the practice of astrology,, 
and, like Augustus, apprehensive of thunder, as a pre- 
servative against which he wore a laurel crown. 

In his person he was tall and robust, broad in the 
shoulders, and so strong in the muscles that he could 
bore a hard apple with his finger, and wound the scalp 
of a boy with a fillip. His face was fair-complexioned^ 
and would have been handsome if it had not been dis- 
figured by carbuncles, for which he used cosmetics. His 
eyes were prodigiously large, and could discern objects 



VKSPASIAN. 1(59 

in the dark ; lie wore liis liair long in the neck, contrary 
to the Roman usage ; walked erect with a stiff neck ; 
seldom accosted any one : and w^hen he spoke, used a 
wave of the liand as in condescension. 

The news of the tyrant's death was received at Rome 
with popukr cries of "Tiberias to the Tiber I " His, 
body, however, was burned with funeral rites. 

It was durino^ the reiscn of Tiberius that Christ was 
crucified. 

Caligula succeeded to the empire on the death of 
Tiberius. Like liis predecessor, he is notorious for his 
cruelty and vices. 

He built his favorite horse a marble stable, placed in 
it an ivory manger, and had he not been prevented by 
death, he probably would have conferred upon the animal 
the honors of the consulship. 

The soldiers nicknamed him Caligula, or •' little shoe," 
from the fact that in his youth he wore little shoes like 
their own. On one occasion he became incensed at the 
people of Rome for some trivial reason, and exclaimed : 
" Would that the people of Rome had but one neck, so 
that I might behead them all at once." 

Passing over the names of several emperors, we come 
to that of 

Vespasian, who was crowned in 70, A. D. And it is 
quite a relief to find in him a good ruler among so many 
bad ones. He w^as distinguished for many noble and 



170 VESPASIAN. 

commendable traits of character. He was affable, kind 
and firm, and he therefore reigned with great popu- 
larity. 

" He was brave, and free from vice, an enemy to lux- 
ury, and devoid of personal or family pride." 

When dying, at the age of seventy years, he requested 
his attendants to lift him to his feet, saying that " an 
emperor should die standing." 

The Colosseum at Rome dates from the time of Ves- 
pasian. This is one of the largest structures ever erected 
by the hand of man, and though in ruins, much of it 
still remains as the proud and glorious monument of 
ancient grandeur. 

It is said that Vespasian made his Jewish prisoners work 
for him gratuitously in the construction of this vast 
amphitheatre. It was dedicated about the year 80, A. D., 
and the people, struck with its immense proportions, 
called it the Colosseum. " At the inauguration under 
Titus, 5,000 wild beasts were put to death, and 11,000 
on the occasion " of a grand victory over the Parthians. 
In the arena a little forest was planted, and therein were 
placed a thousand ostriches and a countless number of 
other animals. 

For many years after the practice of celebrating the bar- 
barous games for wliich the building was reared had 
been abandoned, it was used successively as a fortress 
and a hospital, and finally it served as a quarry from 
which the Farnese and others took the material to build 
their lofty and magnificent palaces. But one of the 



VESPASIAN. 171 

popes, shocked at such wanton depredations, put an end 
to them by consecrating the building to the memory of 
the blessed martyrs who had been torn to pieces within 
it by wild beasts. The farther decay of the building 
was arrested by walls and buttresses of support. 

The following is a description of the structure, trans- 
lated from the French : " The oval arena, 260 feet long 
by 150 wide, had its two entrances situated at the two 
broad extremities of the circus. It was surrounded by 
gradually ascending steps, which formed seats for the 
spectators. On the first rank were placed at one side 
the box for the imperial family, and on the other, that 
of the consuls. Right and left were places reserved for 
ambassadors, first magistrates, senators, and other great 
dignitaries. The senators and equites occupied stalls of 
%vhite marble, separated from the common people by a 
deeply cut division, forming a kind of fixed gulf between 
them. The amphitheatre terminated with a beautiful 
portico at the roof, formed of eighty marble columns. 
The Colosseum accommodated 90,000 spectators. 

" Night is the time when one should contemplate the 
Colosseum, when a beautiful clear moonlight plays 
among the hollow vaults and on the broken steps, giving 
to what it lights up, and what it darkens with shadow, 
proportions more vast and shapes even stranger than 
their own. Then it is that the terrible scenes of the 
past crowd on the memory of the traveller." 

" We imagine we see," says Chateaubriand, " the 
people assembling in the theatre of Vespasian ; all Rome 



172 VKSPASIAN. 

gathered to drink tlie blood of the martyrs; a hundred 
thousand spectators, some shaded by tlie hem.s of their 
robes, others by umbrelhis, crowding the seats; multi- 
tudes vomited forth, as it were, by the porticos, descend- 
ing and ascending the long stairs and taking their places. 
Railings of gold ward off the senators' box from the 
attacks of the ferocious beasts. Ingenious machines 
scatter a perfumed spray tliroughout the vast 
space, cooling the air and making it pleasant. Three 
thousand statues in bronze, an endless multitude of pic- 
tures, columns of jasper and porpliyry, balustrades of 
crystal, vases of the richest workmansliip, dazzle the eye 
and lend variety to the scene. In a canal surrounding 
the arena swim a hippopotamus and crocodiles. Five hun- 
dred lions, forty elephants, and tigers, panthers, and bulls 
accustomed to the slaughter of human beings, rage and 
roar in the caverns of the amphitheatre ; while here and 
there gladiators, not less ferocious, wipe tlieir blood- 
stained arms." 

It seems strange that any people could ever enjoy the 
sight of such base, cruel sports, and yet it is a historical 
fact that the early inhabitants of Rome did relish and 
even gloat over and glory in such bloody spectacles. 
They were monsters, simply monsters of cruelty and 
inhumanity, without a drop of pity in their hearts. 
Watch them as they lean over the galleries, all intent 
upon the fierce contest in the arena, and you will see 
every thumb turned down,voting the helpless victim to the 
death, not one of them willing to turn his hand over to 



DOMITIAN. 173 

spare the poor martyrs life. And yet a respectable his- 
torian writes that Yespasian was " free from vice." The 
blood of tlie martyrs slain by his order or sanction, cries 
out from tlie ground of the Colosseum that he was an 
inhuman barbarian. 

Titus, the son of Yespasian, succeeded to the throne 
in 79, A. D. Measured^ by the standards of his time, he 
was a brave and worthy man. He was called " the father 
of his people, the guardian of virtue, and the patron of 
liberty." Doubtless in some degree he merited the 
praises bestowed upon him. One anecdote which is 
related about him, is highly to his credit. 

On recalling one evening that he had done no benevo- 
lent act during the day, he exclaimed: '^My friends, I 
have lost a day." 

Titus was the General who besieged and took Jerusa- 
lem, 70, A. D. Probably he himself " would have saved 
the holy place of the Temple as a wonder of the world, 
but a soldier threw a torch through a golden latticed 
window, and the flame spread rapidly." 

Domitiaii, a brother of Titus, was the next emperor. 
And it would be difficult to And two persons belonging 
to the same family, and more unlike, than were these 
brothers. Domitian was a profligate scoundrel. Rome 
trembled when he obtained the crown. He w^as '* indo- 
lent, voluptuous, cruel, malignant, suspicious." 

'' He was so much in the habit of catching flies and 
piercing them through with a bodkin for his amusement, 



174 TKAJAN. 

that one of his servants, being asked if any one was with 
the emperor, answered, ^Not even a fly.' " 

At another time he summoned his council before him 
at midnight, as if some very important business was to 
be transacted. Indeed, they all supposed that some great 
danger threatened the state. 

They were, however, happily disappointed when they 
were told the reason for calling them together at that 
late and unseemly hour. The emperor simply wished to 
consult them as to whether an immense turbot, just 
caught, should be cut in pieces or have a special platter 
made for it. That was all. 

John, the Christian Apostle and Evangelist, was ban- 
ished to the Isle of Patmos during the reign of Domitian* 
And it was during his exile that he wrote the book of 
Revelation. 

Trajan was crowned emperor in 98, A. D. The fol- 
lowing are some of the expressions used to describe his 
conduct, appearance and character : " The greatest and 
most powerful, and one of the most virtuous of the 
Roman emperors. Celebrated for his affability, simplicity 
of manners, clemency, and munificence." He was called 
" the best." " Equally great as a ruler, a general, and a 
man." " Of dignified appearance and commanding 
aspect." 

On presenting the sword to a chief military officer, he 
gave this remarkable charge : ''Make use of it for me 
if I do my duty ; if I do not, against me." 



TUAJAN. 175 

He caused so many buildings to be erected, and had 
his name engraved upon them, that he was commonly 
called " a wall-flower." 

It. was during his reign that the province of Dacia, 
across the Danube, was completely conquered. And for 
this conquest Trajan gratified the people by a celebration 
on a grand scale. No fewer than 10,000 gladiators 
fought for the amusement of the multitude. It was 
also to commemorate the Dacian conquest that Trajan's 
famous column was erected in the forum at Rome. This 
pillar has often been excelled in height, but it would be 
hard to find one more perfect and beautiful in harmony 
of proportions. ''Its pedestal is admirable, and the 
spiral figures in low relief, which twist around its shaft 
of white marble, have been studied with advantage by 
Raphael. For the pedestal, the shaft, the capital, and 
the statue of Trajan, Apollodorus of Damascus, the archi- 
tect of Trajan's Forum, employed thirty-four blocks of 
marble, marvellously fitted together. Throughout its 
whole length the column is pierced by a staircase leading 
to the summit. What forms the particular beauty of 
Trajan's column is the unity of conception which it dis- 
plays. Everything is varied, but there is no incoherency. 
Underneath, in the earth, was the golden urn that con- 
tained the ashes of Trajan ; and upon the pedestal, gar- 
lands of oak, symbolical of peace, were suspended. 
Laurels gird the base of the pedestal. The shaft is 
enriched with a kind of endless scroll, which winds 
round its circumference from base to summit. Here may 



176 CONSTANTINE. 

be beheld ascending, as it were, from the bottom to the 
top, 2,500 figures of soldiers and prisoners, with an end- 
less number of horses, elephants, weapons and war- 
material. ' Standing on the top, the conqueror, as it were, 
looks down upon this triumphal cavalcade marching 
upward in winding file, and is recompensed for his vic- 
tory. Above the tomb is the trophy ; above the trophy 
the apotheosis; and — rare fortune for a monument — 
nothing jars upon the mind of the spectator in gazing at 
this great memorial ; for he remembers that Trajan 
deserved all the honors that were paid to him." 

The column in tlie Place Vendome, at Paris, erected 
to commemorate the victories of Napoleon, is a bronze 
reproduction of Trajan's column. 

In tlie latter part of the' third century a change in the 
form of Government w^as inaugurated by the Emperor 
Diocletian. There were to be two chief officers called 
Augusti, one to rule in tlie East and the other in the 
West ; and each Augustus w^as to have a subordinate 
officer called a Caesar. And the Western C<^sar usually 
resided at Trier, or York, in Britain. 

■ At the latter place, it is claimed by many historians 
that the first Christian emperor, Coiistantirie, was born. 
His father was one of the Civsars, and when lie died 
there were no less than six claimants for the chief author- 
ity. Constantino finally succeeded in gaining supreme 
control. He built a new capital, w^hich was named 
Constantinople in his honor. His mother, Helena, 



CONSTANTINE. 177 

restored the sacred places about Jerusalem, and built the 
Church of the Holy Sepulcher and that of the Nativity 
at Bethlehem. 

While marching on to Rome, Constantine saw a flam- 
ing cross in the sky, bearing the inscription in Greek, 
" By this conquer." And henceforth his troops marched 
under a standard whose top was adorned with a mystic 
X, representing at once the cross and the first letter of 
the Greek word for Christ. 

In religious controversies Constantine took an active 
and leading part. He summoned the first general coun- 
cil of bishops to meet at Nice, in Bithynia, and decide 
upon the case of Arius, who denied the divinity of 
Christ. It was here that the Nicene creed was framed 
and adopted. Arius was condemned and banished, but 
after three years the emperor revoked the sentence and 
restored him to his church at Alexandria. 

Constantine's policy was marked by peculiar features. 
He scattered titles with an unsparing hand, adopting the 
oriental custom of piling up adjectives and nouns to 
form great swelling names of honor, such as " Illustri- 
ous," '' Eespectable," ''Most Perfect," "Most Honor- 
able," ''Egregious," "Your Gravity," "Your Sublime 
and Wonderful Magnitude," or "Your Sincerity." 

He taxed the people till a sum equal to forty million 
dollars was poured annually into his treasury. And he 
separated the military service from the civil government. 



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